Hailed in Chadwick's afterword as "The David Beckham of the Medival Age", William Marshal lived an action-packed and tumultous life full of loyalty to his King amidst treachery and jealous back-stabbing from his peers. Unbeaten in all the Competition Tourneys he entered, he rightfully earned a reputation for integrity, honour and respect during his time which saw him become The Earl Of Leciester in recognition for his servitude to the monarchy. The Greatest Knight is the first of two novels Chadwick has written abvout him and either can be read as a stand-alone story or as part of a greater whole and still be enjoyed...

I was not sure what to expoect when I picked this up as a swap recently but was suitably impressed and intrigued by the synopsis and great reviews on Amazon which seem to praise Chadwick as a major writing talent in the field of historical fiction. Certainly this is a very easy (but long) read that catches you up in the moment and refuses to let you go. Reading this, you almost feel transported to another age and time and this is a sign that an author has really gotten you hooked and achieved what they set out to do with the first few chapters. Sometimes important moments and events are glossed over and recounted to us as one character talks to another (much as was the case in Stephen Saylor's Roma) and this can be annoying as you want to read about the action as though you were in the thick of it yourself but to be fair, to go into the full details of everything that happened to Marshall would increase the length of this book even further and there is so much to cram in here that is already a thick novel. Not to mention the fact that there is already so much to portray in Marshall's life that the story has to be spread over two volumes!

This is about as realistic and enjoyable account of life in Medieval times as you are ever going to find. It is not a difficult book to pick up and is worth every penny you spend on it. Though Chadwick takes some liberty with the facts and uses her own imagination in one or two passages, these are few and far between and the main majority of the story told here is based on established historical fact and records. Certainly, she takes less liberty than some other historical fiction authors and the end result is a very accomplished novel!

You are not going to get much better written historical tales than this...