Showing results by author "Griff Hosker" in All Categories

Endure the darkness, claim the dawn. In the heart of ancient Hispania, Bruneus, the heir to the chief's legacy, embarks on a raid with his clan, the proud Clan of the Eagle. But fate is cruel; when errors are made and disaster ensues, the elders are mercilessly slain, leaving only Bruneus and a few battered souls to carry their clan’s memory. As they return to their village, hoping to find solace, they are met with an even greater horror — a plague that has ravaged their home, extinguishing their loved ones and burning their past to ashes.

With the Civil War seeming to be never ending, the Warlord and Duke Henry decide on a bold strategy which pits the men of the north against the might of Stephen and his forces. At the same time, a conspiracy of kings and counts attempt to wrest the young duke's lands from him. Betrayed by his own family, Henry becomes the king who in later life will conquer Wales and Ireland. We see the cub grow into a lion and hear him roar.

In a time of legends, a new hero emerges as an unlikely warrior rises from the ashes of a village destroyed by invading Saxons. Set in the late Sixth century, Saxon Dawn is a thrilling story about the last flames of resistance to the Anglo-Saxon invaders.

This story is set at the end of the 10th century and charts the journey of a young warrior, whose father, Bersi, is killed during a raid on Wessex. Sven Bersisson has to grow up quickly and to follow in his father’s footsteps. Sweyn Skull Taker, his uncle, becomes his foster father and they raid Wessex and Frankia, where the young warrior becomes a man. King Sweyn Forkbeard, the king of Denmark, uses their clan to help in his dream of defeating the Norwegians and then taking the throne of England.

An only child of Anglo-French descent, young James Bretherton has known a life of privilege; well-educated and mild mannered, his path is filled with promise. But when James suddenly finds himself orphaned and penniless, his future looks decidedly bleak. It is only when Fate intervenes in the guise of two English mercenaries, that James is given hope. Embarking on a new life as a soldier, he soon becomes embroiled in the religious war between Catholics and Protestants, The Empire and the German States; the war that was known as The Thirty Years war.

James of Ecclestone is one such youth and when he runs away to become a billman fighting the Yorkist pretender, Lambert Simnel, he begins a journey that will shape him from a youth to a man, a wild child to a Tudor warrior. Set against the backdrop of the early years of King Henry VII’s reign, this fast-moving novel takes us from the Battle of Bramham Moor to the siege of Boulogne. Beginning with the battle of Bosworth field and ending with the Skirmish of Glastonbury Tor, we see an England changing from Yorkist to Lancastrian and James of Ecclestone becoming a warrior of renown.

Set in the years before the Battle of Hastings, the story follows the trials and tribulations of Aelfraed, a young boy who aspires to be a warrior. When his uncle, Aethelward, takes him to join the warriors of Harold Godwinson, his life is irrevocably changed. Fighting the Welsh brings him great honour and when he saves the life of Edward the Confessor, he becomes a man of great reputation. The novel culminates in the battle of Stamford Bridge when the Housecarls defeated the last of the Vikings, Harald Hadrada.

Hrolf the young Viking has left the service of Jarl Dragonheart and sails with Jarl Gunnar Thorfinnson. When they find a home off the Frankish coast they begin to accumulate a vast fortune which earns them the enmity of other Vikings. The novel culminates in a bloody battle where Viking fights Viking but Hrolf begins to fulfill his destiny as Hrolf the Horseman!

It is the end of Roman Britain, and King Aella is engaged in a death struggle with the last kings of Britannia. Even though Lord Lann, the Wolf Warrior, is undefeated, there is treachery and betrayal within the ranks of the allies.

Erik and his family are Norse who live on the island of Orkneyjar. Their world is thrown upside down when the King of Norway colludes with their jarl to take over their home. They flee to the land north of Mercia. Hoping for a life free from the tyranny of a King, they have to fight Danes and Saxons. When King Harald of Norway sends ships to destroy them, the Clan of the Fox is forced to flee to the newly discovered land of ice and fire. They travel beyond sight of land into an uncharted ocean to face a future which is uncertain.

Jarl Dragon Heart is set to trade and raid in the seas beyond the world he knows. He has to venture, with an ever decreasing number of oathsworn warriors, to face new and terrible enemies. When he finds himself betrayed from within and pressed on all sides by enemies he has to fight not only for his own life but for those whom he loves the most.

Sent into exile once more, Don Rodrigo de Vivar has just Will Redbeard and two warriors for companions. Over the next years, he creates the legend of El Cid, defeating enemy after enemy. Fighting overwhelming odds, he succeeds every time until, at last, he has his fiefdom of Valencia. This is the final chronicle in the series and details the last 18 years of the life of the man known as El Cid. Although this is the last in the series, it is a standalone book. Forget the film and listen to the reality of the man who was the greatest knight of his age - some would say, any age!

Although now hidden in a company of East India soldiers, Bill ‘Smudger’ Smith still harbours an intention to escape. These plans are put on hold however when his former life as a wharf rat comes back to haunt him. Bill is a skilled thief with a sharp talent for deception. When the Company needs one of their men to infiltrate the fortress of Seringapatam, it falls to Smudger to gather the necessary intel to take down Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. Will he succeed in his mission? And what will it mean for his ultimate plans for freedom?

In the air, we find freedom. In the summer of 1914, the world stands on the brink of chaos, and for young William Harsker, life is about to change forever. Drawn to the pride of the cavalry and the allure of glory, William trades the freshness of English fields for the muddy trenches of Flanders. But nothing can prepare him for the brutal reality of cavalry charges against merciless machine guns, where valour and death dance intimately on the battlefield.

Dragon Heart's daughter and daughter in law had been kidnapped. He has to to search for them in the lands and the seas of his enemies. He faces enemies with magical powers as well as enemies who have castles which cannot be taken. In a fast moving story filled with battles at sea and on land our Viking hero has more twists and turns to contend with than he has encountered before. The story moves from the north to Cornwall, Wales and back to the north as Dragon Heart and his men are stretched to the limit.

This first instalment in the Chronicles tells of Rodrigo’s rise to prominence when he became the champion of Prince Sancho of Castile. This is but the beginning of a tale which still stirs the blood a millennium after it began. The legend that was El Cid began more than 1,000 years ago, and time has meant that reality and fiction are intertwined like the threads of a spider’s web.

In the heat of conflict, courage is forged. It’s 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force is caught ill-prepared for the onslaught of the German Blitzkrieg and its deadly panzers. Caught in the desperate retreat to Dunkirk, Tom Harsker, son of a WWI ace, discovers he is a natural soldier. Escaping to England and with complete disaster narrowly averted, Tom is selected to join the newly formed Commandos.

When Charlemagne the Holy Roman Emperor declares war on the pagans of Denmark, Pomerania and the Baltic lands, he is unaware of the true might of the storm he is about to unleash. Meanwhile, in a small fjord in the north of Norway, a young Norse warrior is about to embark on a journey that will take him far to the south, beyond the land of the Angles and the Franks.

Will, son of Harry, is about to join one of the freebooting mercenaries who serve the Black Prince in Gascony and Spain. Soldiers of fortune, they fight for pay and for loot. Circumstances mean that he comes to the attention of the heir to the English throne, Prince Edward, and is chosen as the bodyguard for his sons, Edward and Richard. When the Black Prince dies before his father and his elder brother, Edward, also dies, a young Richard of Bordeaux becomes heir to the throne, and Will has a greater responsibility than he expected.

Jarl Dragon Heart and his special sword prove to be magnets for every young warrior who wishes to make a name for himself. After three assassination attempts the Viking goes to Wessex where he helps Egbert, the King of Wessex fight off an invasion from Mercia backed by Danes from Jorvik.