Harlequin - Bernard Cornwell Reviews

'Harlequin' is the first of three novels in Bernard Cornwell's Grail Quest series, and chronicles the adventures of an English archer named Thomas of Hookton, whose idyllic life is changed irrevocably when a mysterious band of norman raiders sack his village, killing his mother and his eccentric priest father, and making off with a dusty relic ...  Read the complete review

My other half's been nagging me for a while (oops - I'm in trouble when she sees this!) to read a Bernard Cornwell novel - an author I've just never fancied. Eventually, to get a quiet life (oops - now I'm really in trouble!) I gave in and started reading Harlequin, the first of Cornwell's Grail trilogy. I chose this one mainly because I'm ...  Read the complete review

The first in a trilogy of books detailing the search for the Holy Grail in and around the time of the Hundred Years War, Harlequin is a highly engaging novel from the creator of the Sharpe series of novels so famously transferred to the small screen starring Sean Bean in the title role. I have never picked up a Sharpe novel, though of ...  Read the complete review

Bernard Cornwell will doubtless be best known amongst you for the best selling Sharpe series of novels - you know, the ones that Sean Bean starred in when they were adapted for TV a few years back. Following on from this success, he has now turned his talents towards a trilogy of novels (The Grail Quest) ...  Read the complete review

Harelquin tells the tale of a young English archer named Thomas, who having had his family slaughtered by French marauders joins the English army in Brittany. The story revolves around the fact his father once owned the Lance of St George, and when the French came to their town of Hookton, they stole it. Thomas makes a promise to retrieve ...  Read the complete review

Sharpe, heard of him? You must have, the TV series, Sean Bean, all decked out in that soldier’s uniform, looking like the piece of rough that all ladies want (or so I am told.) Well to the non-literary TV watching of you out there, Sharpe was derived from a series of books written by Bernard Cornwell. You, the reader may be wondering what ...  Read the complete review

WOW! What a book this is! Telling the story of the English invasion into French territory, the book focuses primarily around a single character by the name of Thomas of Hookton who is part of the archery dividsion. However, not only does he fight for his country, he has a further ultimatum, and something of a personal goal. Many years ...  Read the complete review

Harlequin - probably derived from the Old French hellequin: a troop of the devil’s horsemen. This is one of the inscriptions on the page preceding the prologue, aimed at titillating the browsing customer, which it did to some extent in my case. Having just finished the first three books of CJ Cherryh’s Galasien series, a difficult but ...  Read the complete review

Battle scenes have no better chronicler than Bernard Cornwell. The hundred year's war between the Kings of England and France offer him plenty of opportunity. It is a time where the chivalrous actions of mounted knights are fast giving way to the forerunner of modern war. Noblemen clad in thousand pounds worth of plate armour can be ...  Read the complete review