King's Company - Hardcover

Jessamy Taylor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1908041196 ISBN 13: 9781908041197

Publisher: IndieBooks, 2014

Synopsis

A chance encounter plunges young William D Amory into a world of intrigue and betrayal. He meets new friends and dangerous enemies, and learns the truth about his father, as he is caught up in the fight for the throne of England itself. This is an exciting debut by Jessamy Taylor, who blends a sure feel for story-telling with a vivid sense of period, in the tradition of Rosemary Sutcliff and Ronald Welch. And in William D Amory she has created a hero that boys and girls will want to follow to the last page.

About this title

Review:

The mid 12th century was, until recently, very unfamiliar ground for me. I know the late days of Henry II and his sons Richard and John because, well let's face it, they're what we think of in Britain when we hear the word 'medieval'. But of Stephen and Matilda and the early life of Henry? No. Until recently, that is, when I read the rather superb Demon's Brood, which was a history of the Plantagenet dynasty and rather opened my eyes to how interesting their era was. King's Company, then, takes place in this world. A world where King Stephen and his cousin, the Empress Matilda, are at war, England a ravaged, torn and frightened place. The plight of the ordinary folk in this world is brought to the forefront with the protagonist William, who belongs to a family with a small estate in the south of the country and whose father died in the service of the King. Dreaming his whole life of becoming a knight and doing glorious deeds, William remains tied by duty to the family holding and daily drudgery. Then one day things change when he is jumped by bandits on the road and is saved by a dashing young nobleman. The two become fast friends and the young man, Richard, spends much time at the family estate. Only after many months of their bonds of friendship tightening does William realise that Richard is not quite what he thought and, with one ill-conceived act he finds himself launched into a world where his illusions of the glory of knighthood are torn away, his belief in the nobility and royalty shattered and his preconceptions all destroyed as he meets a young man who dreams of ruling an England not ravaged by war and torn apart by divided loyalties. The characters in King's Company are believable and likeable. Henry, in particular, stood out for me. As a protagonist, William is perfect: young, open-minded and strong willed, and pitted alongside a cast of older, more grizzled characters they drive the plot along well. The basis of the plot becomes fairly obvious early on, when Richard pries information from the family that the reader can't help but realise will lead to something, and there's a faint predictability to that, but once that one predictable event passes, the story rolls on fresh, interesting and unforeseeable. Indeed, gradually as the novel unfolded I found myself wondering more and more where it was going to lead. Towards the end I feared it was bound for something of an anticlimax, since the novel does not reach the conclusion one might expect from early on, but Taylor throws us a final turn in the plot that brings us to a very satisfying conclusion. The scene-setting is done well, and the prose is excellent. To give you some idea of the style, the book has gone onto my shelves next to Angus Donald's Outlaw series. It is less brutal and dark than those books, though. In fact, while King's Company is far from being a children's book, the lack of extreme violence, graphic scenes and bad language make it a very acceptable and easy read for all ages. King's Company is an excellent medieval romp and comes highly recommended. --SJA Turney, author of Interregnum

About the Author:

Jessamy Taylor was born in 1975 and grew up in East Molesey in Surry. She read History at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and went on to work in music publishing and in teaching. She lives in North London with her husband and three children.

About this edition

• Publisher: IndieBooks
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1908041196
• ISBN 13: 9781908041197
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192