For a rollicking good time roll in the blood of the flower of French chivalry, there's nothing quite like Bernard Cornwell's . I found the "grail quest" story line here a little silly, entirely unnecessary, since there is only one reason to read this book and that is to place yourself in the front lines at Crecy, circa 1346. If, like me, you have a touch of OCD, you might want to follow up with the two other books in this series, but if reveling in gory death by English longbow has become your thing, you might just go straight on to .
Cornwell is also responsible for the Richard Sharpe novels, on which the Sharpe television series was based. I'm watching them on Netflix and am so hopelessly entranced by them (hey, a young Sean Bean plays Richard Sharpe) that I can sometimes be heard singing the theme song, Over The Hills and Far Away around the house.
Cornwell's latest playground is the English countryside itself, taking readers back to the good old days when Anglo-Saxons and Danes contested for possession of that green and pleasant land, in The Saxon Chronicles.
Be warned. Chicklit this is not. Believe me, reading Cornwell's depictions of old timey battle will make you very glad you were not there. War is a horrible thing that should never be glorified. But for a long winter's night, these books can provide some glorious reading.