Just Finished Reading: Conquest by Stewart Binns (FP: 2011)

England in the Year 1053. Despite the firm hand of the King, Edward I (The Confessor) the realm is not as secure as it could be. The King has failed to produce an heir and claimants are already positioning themselves to be his nominated successor. Meanwhile in the Fens a young, headstrong Hereward of Bourne is causing trouble in his small tightly knit community. Infatuated with a local beauty he will let nothing stand in his way to see her as often as he can. When he hears that a local cleric has also shown an interest in her he plans to run away and start a new life together. But before he can act the cleric, a powerful man, hires three killers to teach her and her lover a lesson they will never forget. Left for dead Hereward is found by his family’s retainers and is nursed back to health. Vowing revenge he acts months later tracking down his would be killers and dispatching them in a very public manner. Moving onto the cleric he is stopped just in time and is banished for his crime. Forced to wander England as an outlaw Hereward finally finds his way into Wales and thence to Ireland and Scotland before finding his true calling as a sword for hire in Europe’s interminable wars of conquest. Returning finally to England over 10 years later he becomes part of the personal guard for a man he grows to greatly admire – Harold Godwinson, one of the most powerful men in England and a man who is rumoured to be the next King of England. When Edward dies suddenly Harold is crowned King but before he has had time to take up his position he is forced to defence the nation against attacks both in the North and the South. With Hereward at his side he is convinced that he can beat off the opposition to his rule – but his most dangerous opponent knows his battle techniques all too well and seems to have both Right and God on his side, William Duke of Normandy. If Harold is defeated Hereward vows to lead the survivors in a covert war against the hated Normans – but can one man stand if a nation has fallen?

I was looking forward to this book for some time. Not only have I become rather fascinated with Anglo-Saxon England and the final Battle of Hastings which marked its end but I still remember the thrill of discovering the story of Hereward of Borne (or Hereward the Wake as we knew him) when I was still very young – probably no older that 7-8. The idea of a single man, leading a rag-tag collection of fighters against probably (one of) the best fighting force(s) in the world at the time and more than holding his own (apparently) stirred my little heart. Hereward was, at least for me back then, one of the premier English heroes. He has certainly kept that place – along with the other British greats – since then. So, as you can imagine I was hoping for something that stirred the blood and thrilled the spirit. How disappointed I was! The author clearly had an idea of making Hereward into a towering hero but that was the problem. Binns’s Hereward wasn’t a man to be reckoned with – he was a god come down to Earth, a giant of a man, unbeatable in battle who could wield weapons others could not even lift! He was, in other words, simply unbelievable. During his time in European exile not only did he meet and impress Duke William himself but El Cid! Everyone seemed to be clambering to have Hereward as his personal bodyguard. He was, clearly, without peer – until Binns introduced Harold who, rather bizarrely, he first presented as someone who could barely make a decision – suddenly transformed into a battle winning warrior on his ascension to the throne. Binns also repeated and appeared to give a great deal of credence to the idea, called heavily into question by historians, the Harold had given his fealty to William and had agreed to serve him as the rightful King of England and that, becoming King himself, his taking up arms against the Norman invasion was an act of rebellion. More than once I almost put the book down almost in disgust at the sloppy writing, questionable characterisation and deep inconsistencies. Sometimes I kept going through sheer momentum and the hope, vain it turned out, that things would get better. The set-piece battles where well described and, as far as I know, pretty accurate, but everything else really didn’t gel with me. Deeply disappointing, at least for me, so cannot be recommended.