Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Wolves of Winter by Dan Jones, the second book in the ‘Essex Dogs’ trilogy. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.
About the Book
An endless war. A blood-soaked battlefield. A band of brothers.
1347. Bruised and bloodied by an epic battle at Crécy, six soldiers of fortune known as the Essex Dogs pick through the wreckage of the fighting – and their own lives.
Now a new siege is beginning, and the Dogs are sent to attack the soaring walls of Calais. King Edward has vowed no Englishman will leave France til this city falls. To get home, they must survive a merciless winter in a lawless camp deadlier than any battlefield.
Obsessed with tracking down the vanished Captain, Loveday struggles to control his own men. Romford is haunted by the reappearance of a horrific figure from his past. And Scotsman is spiralling into a pit of drink, violence and self-pity.
The Dogs are being torn apart – but this war is far from over. It won’t be long before they lose more of their own.
Format: Hardback (416 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 12th October 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction
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My Review
Wolves of Winter is the sequel to Essex Dogs, the book which first introduced readers to Loveday FitzTalbot and his fellow soldiers of fortune. Although Wolves of Winter could be read as a standalone, I think you’d be missing out by not reading the series from the beginning. As with the previous book, the events, notably the siege of Calais, are rooted in historical fact (the extent of which will become apparent once you read the author’s Historical Note) but what brings it alive is the fact we see events through the eyes of ordinary soldiers. They come from different backgrounds, have different skills, speak with different accents even but they have become a brotherhood and, in some cases, the nearest each has to a family.
War being what it is, especially 14th century war, not all the Essex Dogs from the first book made it out alive. The loss of some of their former comrades is something which haunts the remaining Dogs, especially Loveday, the group’s leader. And for Romford, an already troubled young man, the impact of one loss in particular manifests itself in a quite macabre way. In fact, all the Essex Dogs are brilliantly drawn characters. For those sensitive to such things, they are generous in their use of swear words, although perhaps not quite as prolific as the Earl of Northampton whose creative cursing is second to none.
There are other characters too who make their mark, motivated variously by greed, a hard-won understanding of reality or a desire for revenge.
This is not a conflict carried out by knights in shining armour: it’s brutal, bloody, dirty, cruel and utterly wasteful of human life. Those in charge range from the arrogant, to the incompetent to the venal. It’s no wonder that Loveday and his comrade begin to wonder, as they sit in their filthy shelter at the end of a day filled with back-breaking work eating slop and wading through all sorts of unpleasant substances, what they are actually fighting for. For money? Initially, yes, but they’ve yet to see much of that. Because soldiering is the only thing they know? Yes, but endless killing can start to eat into your soul. For glory? Doesn’t seem like much of that so far. Out of loyalty to your king? A man who doesn’t know you from Adam and sees battle as some kind of ‘performance’? For a cause? Unfortunately only disillusionment lies ahead there.
Wolves of Winter will grab your attention from the very first page, propel you along like a bolt from a crossbow through the next 400 pages and immerse you in the blood, sweat and other bodily substances of warfare. I absolutely loved it and, if you’re a fan of historical adventure, I hope you will too.
In three words: Authentic, gripping, action-packed
About the Author
Dan Jones is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of many non-fiction books, including The Plantagenets, The Templars, and Powers and Thrones. He is a renowned writer, broadcaster and journalist. He has presented dozens of TV shows, including the Netflix series Secrets of Great British Castles, and writes and hosts the podcast This is History. His debut novel, Essex Dogs, is the first in a series following the fortunes of ordinary soldiers in the early years of the Hundred Years’ War. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
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