In Wolves of Winter Dan Jones continues the story of the Essex Dogs, a small band of professional soldiers fighting for Edward III in his invasion of France in the 1340s. We left them on the corpse-strewn battlefield of Crecy – that’s the great victory before the one Shakespeare wrote up in Henry V – and there we rejoin them, professionally pillaging the dead.

Jones is often compared to Joseph Cornwell but for my money he is a better Medievalist and achieves a degree of gritty authenticity that you can sometimes smell and taste. Even better, he lacks Cornwell’s annoying English nationalism and while the Essex Dogs work for Edward they are far from convinced of the rightness of his cause.

The centre piece of Wolves of Winter is the appalling siege of Calais in 1446-47. Siege narratives have been a sub-genre of historical writing since at least Josephus described the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE and Jones delivers a convincing picture of the chess-like move and counter move that characterised pre-modern sieges. The privations of the besieged and the besieging are faithfully recounted as are the mechanics of artillery and escalades.

Beyond all the fighting however, the novel is about the relationships with the Essex Dogs and their interactions with their commanders and enemies. None of the protagonists are classic ‘squaddies’. Loveday, the defacto leader, is getting old and full of doubt. Romford is a crack shot with the bow but also an addict. The enigmatic Captain – who was referred to but absent in the first book – makes a surprising (to the Dogs, not to the reader) reappearance.

Jones is less of a purist when it comes to tampering with known history than I normally approve of. His very unflattering portrait of the Black Prince for example is only partly justifiable. Hilary Mantel he ain’t. But if you enjoy your historical fiction devoid of glamour then you will enjoy Wolves of Winter.

Reviewed by Grant Hansen

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dan Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of Powers and Thrones, Crusaders, The Templars, The Plantagenets, Wars of the Roses, and Magna Carta, as well as the novel Essex Dogs.

He is the host of the podcast This is History: A Dynasty to Die For and has produced, written, and presented dozens of TV shows, including the popular Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles.