Showing results by author "David Pilling" in All Categories

With contributions by: William Boyd, Candice Carty-Williams, Imtiaz Dharker, Roddy Doyle, Pico Iyer, Robert Macfarlane, Andy Miller, Jackie Morris, Jan Morris, Sisonke Msimang, Dina Nayeri, Chigozie Obioma, Michael Ondaatje, David Pilling, Max Porter, Philip Pullman, Alice Pung, Jancis Robinson...

A revelatory and entertaining book about the pitfalls of how we measure our economy and how to correct them, by an award-winning editor of The Financial Times. According to GDP, the economy is in a golden era: economic growth has risen steadily over the past 70 years and shows no sign of stopping. But if this is the case, why are we living in such fractured times, with global populism on the rise and wealth inequality as stark as ever?

England, 1266 AD. The kingdom lies in ruins after years of bitter civil war. Simon de Montfort is dead, slaughtered in battle, and his surviving followers fight on with the fury of despair. Known as the Disinherited, these landless men infest the forests and highways and prey on the common folk...

AD 1453. The great city of Constantinople, last remnant of the once-mighty Roman Empire, falls to the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. An English knight named Sir John Page is taken prisoner by the Ottomans and forced to entertain the Sultan with tales of the West. Page chooses to tell the story of his own long career as a soldier of fortune in France, Bohemia, and the Italian city-states. Page’s tale begins in the year of Agincourt, Henry V’s famous victory over the French.

Longsword VI: The Broken Arrow is the latest historical adventure novel by David Pilling! The fragile peace is about to be shattered. King Edward’s victory over the Welsh and Irish five years earlier was only temporary, and now hostile forces gather again. In Wales the defeated prince...

Longsword IV: The Hooded Men is the latest historical adventure novel by David Pilling, author of Reiver, Soldier of Fortune, The Half-Hanged Man, Caesar’s Sword and many more novels and short stories. Henry III is dead. The new king, Edward I, is thousands of miles away in the Holy Land. In...

Longsword (III) Holy Warrior is the third of the adventures of Hugh Longsword, swordsman, spy and assassin in the turbulent, war-torn 13th century. 1271 AD. The civil wars in England are over and the Lord Edward has sailed to the Holy Land to save what remains of the crusader states. Abandoned...

1267 AD. Civil war continues to rage in England between the supporters of King Henry III and rebel barons known as the Disinherited. The memory of Simon de Montfort, butchered on the field of Evesham, is kept alive by his devoted followers. Disturbing rumours reach London of fresh trouble in...

Longsword V: The King’s Rebels is the latest historical adventure audiobook by David Pilling, author of Reiver, Soldier of Fortune, Caesar’s Sword and many more novels and short stories. Prince Llywelyn of Wales refuses to swear loyalty to the king, Edward I. To defy the might of the English...

1570 AD. The March lands between England and Scotland are a place of terror, where outlaw bands and broken men rob, pillage and murder in open defiance of the law. Here, deadly blood-feud is a way of life. Families of robbers, known as Border Reivers, live via blackmail and terrorism. No man sleeps safe in his bed, and the sound of hoofbeats on the tops is a herald of death.

Britain, AD 470. Ambrosius Aurelanius, the defender of Britannia, is dead, murdered by the son of his greatest enemy. His successor, the heroic General Artorius, is meant to take the crown his predecessor refused and reign as High King. With the Saxons defeated, and the Picts and Scotti driven out, all is set for a golden age of peace and prosperity. Artorius, however, chooses to step aside and allow another to seize power.

AD 1569. The March lands between England and Scotland are a place of terror, where outlaw bands and broken men rob, pillage, and murder in open defiance of the law. Here, deadly blood-feud is a way of life. Families of robbers, known as Border Reivers, live via blackmail and terrorism. No man sleeps safe in his bed, and the sound of hoof beats on the tops is a herald of death. Richie Reade, known as Richie O'the Bow, finds himself dragged into this dark and bloody world.

Page describes his time among the fanatical Hussites in Bohemia. Condemned by the Pope as heretics, the Hussites dared to defy the might of the Catholic church and the Christian princes of Europe. In response, the Pope ordered their destruction, down to the last child, and the brutal subjugation of their country. Page joins the Hussites just as another crusade is launched against Bohemia. Led by the merciless King Sigismund, known as the Dragon of Prophecy, the crusaders will drown the land in blood rather than let heresy prevail.

The CHAMPION (II): BLOOD AND GOLD is the latest historical fiction thriller by David Pilling, author of the Longsword series. 1297 AD: the kings of England and France have struck a truce, but elsewhere conflict still rages. In Scotland, the armies of Edward Longshanks have been driven out by a...

1296 AD: the whole of Western Europe trembles on the brink of war. South of the Pyrenees, the Christian and Moorish kingdoms fight and scheme against each for control of Hispania. To the north, the rival kings of England and France feverishly enlist allies as they battle for supremacy on the...

In the year 1395, the famous French chronicler Jean Froissart comes to England in search of tales of chivalry and warfare to complete his life's work, the Great Chronicle of England, France, Spain, and Adjoining Countries. Disappointed by the decayed state of England under Richard II, he visits a tavern inside Eastcheap, where a beggar comes to his table and claims to be Thomas Page, the famous soldier of fortune.

Artorius has reigned as High King for two years. After his shattering victory at Mount Badon, an uneasy peace reigns over the land. The squabbling British kingdoms cling on in the West, while to the East the Saxons under Cerdic lick their wounds, waiting for a new generation of warriors to grow to manhood. Artorius is still unmarried, and faces increasing pressure from his nobles to take a wife. When civil war threatens, he finds a bride in the person of Gwenhwyfar, eldest daughter of the King of Powys.

Attacked from all sides, the Britons find a champion in the form of Ambrosius Aurelianus, the last of the Romans. Placed in command of Britain's only standing army, he fights to preserve the dwindling light of civilization while the treacherous High King, Vortigern, plots his destruction. The first book of the Leader of Battles trilogy charts the rise and fall of post-Roman Britain's first great hero, and his desperate struggle to hold back the shadows threatening to engulf his country.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. “William came over the sea, with bloody hand came he ...” 1069 AD. Three years after the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy had yet to crush resistance in England. To the north, the people of the Danelaw refused to bow to the Norman yoke. In...

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. “They called their new land England ...” 1076 AD. William the Conqueror reigns supreme in England. After many years of bitter warfare, all his enemies are dead or defeated. The Norman king has imposed an iron grip on the land. His dreaded castles...