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Essex Dogs: The epic Richard & Judy Summer Book Club Pick 2023 from a Sunday Times bestselling historian (Essex Dogs Series 1)

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Although the story of the Essex Dogs is fiction a lot of the facts are taken from historical chronicals. The book contains lots of very well drawn characters, each of the Dogs is very distinct, but my favourite was the Earl of Northampton, whose creative cursing is a real highlight, and laugh out loud funny.

Essex Dogs: : Essex Dogs Series Dan Jones Head of Zeus -- an

Not that the young are generally respected; this is still an era when a child can be hanged for stealing 6 shillings worth of ribbon for his mother to resell for bread; when criticizing the government is a crime punishable by prison; and when two or more employees are forbidden by the 1799 Combination Act to criticize their employer. Retrieving three knights' publicly displayed skulls in Paris against all odds is an undertaking that's as much fun as a good heist scene. Jones creates compelling and authentic characters - bloodthirsty, profane soldiers lacking conscience, killing for coin, yet fighting bravely alongside each other.Few books manage to be as compelling on every level as Essex Dogs: it’s adventure, history, and heart. Their job in Normandy is to first find the enemy—not always easy considering "the ingenious French tactic of fleeing at the first sight of trouble"—and then rout them. The Essex Dogs are a motley selection of disparate soldiers thrown together to fight an overseas war, for a cause that they don't really understand or care about.

ESSEX DOGS TRILOGY BOOK 2 - by Dan Jones WOLVES OF WINTER: ESSEX DOGS TRILOGY BOOK 2 - by Dan Jones

The story follows a gang of men - the Essex dogs - ordinary footsoldiers during the Hundred Years War culminating in the battle at Crecy. Among the king's army is a tight-knit company fighting not for conquest but for each other, the 'Essex Dogs'. The locations were vividly word-painted, managing to weave many historical details into the fabric of the story without it ever getting in the way. Then they settled down to fight for control of Calais - seemingly willing to go to any lengths and incur any cost to take it.Wolves of Winter follows some of the same characters you have already met in Essex Dogs - Loveday, Romford, Scotsman and the rest of the gang - and introduces some more whom I hope you will find memorable. As for Jones’ writing style, I think it splendidly combines Bernard Cornwell’s well-structured and pacy plots with the savage and sensual characterisations of Tim Willocks.

Essex Dogs | Dan Jones | 9781838937911 | NetGalley Essex Dogs | Dan Jones | 9781838937911 | NetGalley

Dan Jones debut into the fictional world brings to life a period in real life history through the lives of well developed fictional characters. This book pulls you along through the dirt and dust of travel, into grisly battle that leaves you drenched in mud, and all this is before you process the emotional side of what you are reading. His is often seen as the wise, older leader, grizzled and suffered but quite likeable from the start. When he strikes his stepson, Jarge learns that he’s made a big mistake: “If you ever touch that boy again,” Sal warns, “I swear I’ll cut your throat in the middle of the night, so help me God.With thanks to NetGalley, Head of Zeus and Dan Brown for a digitial copy of this book to read and review. The characters are all well-rounded and have various fascinating personality flaws as well as some caring traits for their comrades in arms. To summarise, I cannot praise this book highly enough and look forward to exploring some of Brown’s other historical novels. Lords who at best could be described as loveable rogues, yet who are also self-serving, while caring almost nothing for the commoners they command. A wonderful story of a group of freebooters during Edward 111’s invasion of France at the start of the 100 years war.

Book Review: ‘Essex Dogs,’ by Dan Jones - The New York Times

The opening chapter, with a brutal French beach landing for the Essex Dogs, sets the scene for an action packed story displaying just how barbaric war was in the Middle Ages, with hand to hand fighting, more often than not to the death. My thanks to NetGalley and, as ever, Head of Zeus for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

With sword, axe and longbow, the Essex Dogs will fight, from the landing beaches of Normandy to the bloodsoaked field of Crecy. The dynamics between a fellowship of characters told through the story of an invasion is also highly original, and I doubt it’s been done before in either high fantasy or historical fiction. Underpinned by historic realities, and propelled by edge-of-your-seat pace, Essex Dogs thrusts readers to the heart of the Hundred Years’ War that shaped Europe – strap in for a wild ride. Soldiers throughout the centuries, up to the present day, use barrack-room language with each other. The English laid siege to Calais - despite the facts that the marshland around the city made siege engines virtually useless, that they lacked the naval strength to immediately blockade its port, that their men were exhausted and starting to think of deserting.

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