Vagabond (The Grail Quest) (Hardcover)

Vagabond, the second entry in the "Grail Quest" sequence, has been eagerly anticipated by those who read the first book, and it doesn't disappoint. Thomas has managed to survive the battle of Crécy. Still nursing his wounds, he is dispatched by the king on a mission to look into the matter of his father's inheritance, which is obscurely connected to the Holy Grail. This most precious relic of the Christian faith is a much sought-after object, offering the power of total victory in war to its owner. But Thomas finds himself in the middle of a battle against an army invading the North of England, and other shadowy forces pursuing the grail are prepared to slaughter anyone who stands in their way. In the ruins of his birthplace, Thomas discovers more about his father, and a dangerous voyage to France brings him up against his cousin and arch-enemy, Count of Astarc Guy Vexville. The stage is set for a merciless showdown.

Thomas is a protagonist drawn quite as pithily as his much-loved predecessor, and the sheer verve of Cornwell's storytelling here is irresistible. We are plunged into a distant age: bloody, colourful and dangerous. Roll on, volume three! --Barry Forshaw

If anyone can write poetically about savage warfare and keep his readers' eyes riveted to the page, it's Bernard Cornwell. The sequel to Harlequin and the second in his series The Grail Quest is set in 1346, when the Hundred Years' War is already into its second decade. Thomas of Hookton, having fought gallantly at Crecy, has now been sent to Durham to help quell an invasion by the Scots. The army he joins is vastly outnumbered and the Scots are confident; but the English are skilled tacticians and the use of the longbow - Thomas's weapon - over great distances gives them an advantage. But the King has another and more important mission for Thomas: to find the legendary, elusive and much-coveted Grail, the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper. Inevitably Thomas is not the only one engaged in the search; he has many competitors, all of them ruthless in their determination, and they include Thomas's French cousin and enemy Guy Vexille, Count of Astarac. This is a story of conflict, ambition, greed, superstition disguised as religion and courage. Cornwell has an astonishing ability to project his readers back in time, to see, hear and smell the period and to understand how its people's minds worked. His combination of scholarship with eloquence and imagination gives a picture of the time and its conflicts that can be shocking but is always irresistible. A tour de force. (Kirkus UK)

Continuing the series that began with The Archer's Tale (2001), adventure master Cornwell throws his lusty young hero Thomas of Hookton up against both the French and the Inquisition. Opening with a fine small battle on the Scottish border, Cornwell continues his historically based, wildly entertaining trek through the Hundred Years War, a tale that hangs on the adventures of a superb English bowman at a time when English longbows pretty much ruled the battlefield. Thomas, last seen at the battle of Crecy, has trudged up north with orders from Edward Plantagenet to see a monk in Durham about a legend. The legend is The Grail, and Thomas is involved because his priestly father Ralph de Vexille, a French fugitive, left him a multilingual diary full of references to the sacred vessel. The Vexilles believed they had possession of the cup, and the diary may lead to its recovery. Oxford dropout Thomas can read his father's Latin and a bit of the Greek, but the Hebrew's got him stumped. Marching with the lad are his pregnant sweetheart and a kindly monk, both doomed to die at the hands of the divinely sinister Dominican inquisitor Bernard de Taillebourg, who, with his dark and moody servant Guy de Trexille (Thomas's psychotic cousin), lusts after the diary. Before Thomas can get his answers he's roped into an English skirmish with raiding Scots. Encouraged by their French allies, the savage northerners have massed in huge numbers, but their drums and battle-axes are no match for the handful of archers Tom joins. Thomas makes an enemy of a nasty bankrupt knight and poor Eleanor falls victim to the sadistic de Taillebourg, but Thomas survives to continue his quest for the grail accompanied by cheerful prisoner Robbie Douglas. Their travels, always just a few steps ahead of the damned Dominican and the jealous Sir Geoffrey, take them to Brittany, scene of earlier romance, where the English have a tenuous toehold and where de Taillebourg has equally perfidious allies. There will be torture, siege, and treachery. Historically accurate and huge fun. Vintage Cornwell. (Kirkus Reviews)