Besides Loveday, the person we learn most about is Romford, a troubled young man for whom the Essex Dogs have become a sort of family. Only Dan Jones can carry you through blood, piss and vomit and leave you wanting more' Daisy Dunn 'Vital, earthy, and heart-stopping.

Towards the end of the book the action really picks up with some terrific battle scenes, culminating with the Battle of Crécy. Their adventures are they fight their way into France are completely gripping and, as Judy says, often very funny. In the half-dozen other landing craft that were struggling nearby with the same current, he guessed other captains were wondering the same thing. There is camaraderie, banter, love and anger between each member and at times I forgot that I was reading a medieval novel - often feeling as apt and relatable as a modern war novel. Parts are very good, I particularly liked the description of the battle of Caen and the desperate hand to hand fight at the barricade.Though he isn't present in every scene, he conveys each piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he were an omniscient narrator, capable of accessing every character's interior perspective. Dan Jones is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of ten non-fiction books, including The Templars , The Colour of Time and Powers and Thrones . We meet our main characters, and spend a few months with them as they burn through the French countryside towards Paris, leaving a swath of destruction in their path. By no means, it was entertaining and a good read-but perhaps too much time is spent on the Essex Dogs and their misadventures than on the historical big picture.

Really enjoyed this book, a ragtag group of soldiers storming France during the start of the hundred years war. The sheer diversity of content in Essex Dogs is astounding, because it does not feel rushed or unbalanced. I thought this might be a Richard Sharpe and the Rifles in the 100 years war type of story based on that comparison. Vital, earthy, and heart-stopping… So deft and funny that you’d never guess this is Dan Jones’ debut work of fiction. He follows a small band of men attached to Edward III's invasion of France in 1346, culminating in the Battle of Crecy.

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. While I appreciated the author using his expertise to paint this ruthless, unromantic, picture of war I wasn’t so persuaded by his attempt to include human drama via his main characters. Before the word was out of his mouth, the Dogs saw one of the archers struggling in the water hit directly by a lump of stone the size of an anvil.