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July 1241. Christendom cowers in terror before the threat of a Mongol invasion. The swift-moving, invincible cavalry of Genghis Khan has smashed the proud, steel-clad knights of Russia, Poland and Hungary – and now Austria lies directly in their path. At a skirmish outside the walls of Vienna, German knights capture a squad of Mongol scouts, and are astonished to discover one of their number is an Englishman – a Templar knight – who has been riding with these Devil’s horsemen for more than 20 years.

May 1194: Richard the Lionheart is in Normandy, locked in a long and bloody war with the French. By his side are Robert Odo, Earl of Locksley - the former outlaw Robin Hood - and Sir Alan Dale, Robin's protégé, a musician and warrior of great renown. As battles rage and bodies pile up, Alan embarks on a mission to track down the man who ordered his father's death 10 years earlier. But the trail leads him to Paris, deep in the heart of enemy territory - where even Robin might not be able to rescue him.

Arrows will fly. Swords will swing. Heroes will fall. Legends will survive. And the Holy Land will never be the same.1190 AD: Richard the Lionheart has launched his epic crusade to seize Jerusalem from the cruel Saracens. Marching with the vast royal army is Britain's most famous, most feared, most ferocious warrior: the Outlaw of Nottingham, the Earl of Locksley - Robin Hood himself. With his band of loyal men at his side, Robin cuts a bloody swathe on the brutal journey east.

'I charge you, Sir Alan Dale, with administering my death. At the end of the game, I would rather die by your hand than any other.' England rebels. War rages across the land. In the wake of Magna Carta, King John's treachery is revealed, and the barons rise against him once more. Fighting with them is the Earl of Locksley - the former outlaw Robin Hood - and his right-hand man, Sir Alan Dale.

A home burned. When past crimes resurface, Sir Alan Dale, loyal lieutenant of the Earl of Locksley - better known as the murderous thief Robin Hood - faces terrible vengeance at the hands of those that he and his master have wronged. A family threatened. With his beloved wife on her deathbed, Sir Alan must seek salvation by following Robin into the lair of their enemy, the mysterious leader of a band of renegade Templars, on the trail of the most precious object in the world: the Holy Grail. Only a miracle can save them.

When he's caught stealing, young Alan Dale is forced to leave his family and go to live with a notorious band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest. Their leader is the infamous Robin Hood. A tough, bloodthirsty warrior, Robin is more feared than any man in the county. And he becomes a mentor for Alan; with his fellow outlaws, Robin teaches Alan how to fight - and how to win.

AD 1215: The year of Magna Carta - and Robin Hood's greatest battle. King John is scheming to reclaim his ancestral lands in Europe, raising the money for new armies by bleeding dry peasants and nobles alike, not least the earl of Locksley - the former outlaw Robin Hood - and his loyal man, Sir Alan Dale.

AD 1203: England and France are locked in a brutal struggle for power. The fate of the embattled duchy of Normandy is in the hands of the weak and untrustworthy King John. Facing disaster, he calls for help from a former outlaw - Robin Hood. As King Philip II's army rips through the Norman defences, Robin - the Earl of Locksley - leads a savage mercenary force into battle under the English banner, supported by his loyal lieutenant Sir Alan Dale. But defeat is only one castle away.

The third crusade is over. Richard the Lion heart is bound for England. But with the princes of Europe united against him, can the greatest warrior in Christendom make it safely home? The Lion is Chained. Captured. Bound. Imprisoned. King Richard's slim hope of salvation rests on one man - a former outlaw who scoffs at Holy Mother Church: Robin Hood. For King and country, Robin will risk all - from blood-soaked battlefields to deadly assassins - to see the Lion heart restored to his rightful throne.

Spring, AD 777. Sigurd Hring, new King of the Svear, is summoning all the greatest warriors of the North to his banner. He invites Bjarki Bloodhand, the famous berserkr, to swear an oath of fealty to him. But Bjarki has already sailed away to rescue a beautiful Saxon princess. Tor Hildarsdottir, sister of Bjarki, now oath-bound to a powerful Svearland jarl, finds herself unwillingly enrolled in Sigurd’s mighty army. When Sigurd Hring arrogantly rejects the overlordship of Siegfried, King of the Dane-Mark, red war is inevitable.

The English Army is besieging Carrickfergus in Ireland. Brilliant but unusual gunner Holcroft Blood of the Royal Train of Artillery is ready to unleash his cannons on the rebellious forces of deposed Catholic monarch James II. But this is more than war for Captain Blood; a lust for private vengeance burns within him. French intelligence agent Henri d'Erloncourt has come across the seas to foment rebellion against William of Orange, the newly installed Dutch ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Post-Roman Britain. Thousands of desperate Saxon refugees are flooding the island, fleeing their homelands as the whole world warms and the waters rise, and worse, the mighty dragon Cythraul from the once-frozen North has been awoken by an evil sorceress. His lust for human flesh is insatiable, and he threatens to extinguish all human life.

Spring, 1192. Robin Hood and his band of men, travelling home from the Third Crusade, find themselves in the lush, wine-rich Duchy of Burgundy. When they are captured by a renegade knight and taken across the River Saone to the rival County of Burgundy, they are plunged into a nightmarish world of treachery, deceit and cold-blooded murder.

Duke Widukind, leader of the Saxon rebels, is sheltering in the North, beyond Karolus's reach. He hopes to persuade Bjarki Bloodhand - once a famous berserker, but now a father and family man - and his fierce sister the shield-maiden Tor, to join his revolt against tyranny. But Bjarki has eloped with Widukind's sister Edith, who was betrothed to Abbio the Crow. In revenge, Abbio uses seithr to strike at Bjarki - a powerful spell to drive him insane. Can Bjarki resist the long slide into madness?

An ancient blade, fit for the gods but tainted with a deadly curse. Bjarki Bloodhand has finally managed to subdue his gandr, the spirit that gives him the ferocity of a bear in battle. Yet losing his berserker prowess may leave him at the mercy of his foes. Meanwhile, his half-sister, the shield maiden Tor Hildarsdottir, has slain two warriors from the personal retinue of the new Jarl of Norrland – and now faces brutal reprisals for their deaths.

March, AD 773. Bjarki Bloodhand is now Fire Born - a legendary berserker inhabited by the ferocious spirit of a bear in battle. Yet he has sworn never again to allow that sacred rage to possess him, lest he for ever lose himself in the madness like his father. Tor Hildarsdottir yearns to save pagan Saxony from the grip of the Christian Franks, who now occupy half the region. But she also has serious problems closer to home with her fast-growing pet bear cub, Garm, and, worse, she seems to be falling in love.

771AD, Northern Europe. Bjarki Bloodhand and Tor Hildarsdottir are journeying south into Saxony. Their destination is the Irminsul, the One Tree that links the Nine Worlds of the Middle-Realm. In this most holy place, they hope to learn how to summon their animal spirits so they can enter the ranks of the legendary berserkir: the elite frenzied fighters of the North.

Autumn 1191, and Robert, earl of Locksley, also known as the notorious outlaw Robin Hood, and his loyal lieutenant, Alan Dale, are returning home fresh from victory in the Third Crusade. They decide to travel via the Mediterranean sea-route, despite the dangers of the imminent stormy season. Disaster strikes, and Robin and his men are shipwrecked on the rocky coast of Crete.

WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED 2025 THE CRICKET SOCIETY/MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED 2026 'Wonderfully wide-focused, unfailingly readable and laced with passages of insightful analysis, Tim Wigmore's history of test cricket is a true tour de force.' David...

Gallipoli, 1916. Lovat Scout soldier Donald Peter Gillies lies in hospital, blinded by the Turks. There he falls in love with his Queen Alexandra Corps nurse, Louise. The story moves back and forth from their time at the field hospital to the west highlands of Scotland where Donald grew up. As they talk in the quiet hours he tells her the stories of the coast and glens. Louise in turn tells her own story of growing up in a Welsh coal mining valley. They get cut off from the Allied troops and are forced to make an escape, but there is still another tragic twist to their story....