The sheer diversity of content in Essex Dogs is astounding, because it does not feel rushed or unbalanced. As always, it is these ordinary people caught in the middle who bear the brunt of the abuse resulting from the fighting. It is clear from the off we're in for a no holds barred and gritty novel that depicts the brutality of warfare in the period that it is set. From the off, it's clear that we're in for a breathtaking, violently graphic encounter between the medieval armies of England led by Edward III (as well as the young Black Prince) and France. Jones may have come to a point in his career where he has exhausted his wealth of knowledge in the area of his historic expertise and has decided to try something new.

Raw, harsh, gritty, fast-paced action continues unabated as the band of mercenaries ransack loot, rape and pillage their way across Normandy to the Somme and the Battle of Crecy. Essex Dogs,” a first novel by the best-selling historian Dan Jones, opens with a group of soldiers pressed together inside a landing craft approaching the coast of Normandy at dawn.The book opens with a dramatic and bloody beach landing that could have come straight out of Saving Private Ryan or The Longest Day. One more “main” character is a young 15 year old kid with a mysterious backstory, fighting some personal demons that are slowly revealed. The story is told primarily from the perspective of the common soldier in such time and in such a campaign and the telling is crude, vulgar, and assorted other unpleasant adjectives and is probably entirely accurate to the reality of war at this time. This would have been fine had the characters been rich and interesting, but they were not and thus I found myself just waiting to be shuffled from set piece battle/siege to set piece battle/siege. Udo Graf is proud that the Wolf has assigned him the task of expelling all 50,000 Jews from Salonika, Greece.

I am a huge Cornwell fan so instantly picked this novel up as it was touted to ‘stand shoulder to shoulder with Bernard Cornwell’. To anyone with a basic knowledge of 20th-century European history, or has seen “Saving Private Ryan, ” at least, this may sound like a familiar opening. 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. Dan Jones' debut novel is an impressive work of historical fiction set in the Hundred Years' War and, more particularly, during the Crecy Campaign.A historical saga about a motley crew of English fighters making life miserable for the French during the early days of the Hundred Years’ War. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. A couple POVs swap around and it's great to see the war through the eyes of different members - as well as their hilarious dealings with the nobles - a special shoutout to Northampton and Warwick! What unites them is a talent for fighting – whether with axe, sword or bow – a desire to make their fortunes and the bonds of comradeship.