Kings of Albion - Julian Rathbone

Turning the adventure stories of empire and colonialism upside down, from Rider Haggard to Conrad, Julian Rathbone introduces into the Wars of the Roses, at their most terrible and bloody climax, three sophisticated and highly civilised easterners from South India who are on a mission to trace the Prince of Vijayanagara's long-lost brother. Through their eyes the heart of darkness that was England is revealed. The result is a take on medieval England during its most gross and savage period, filled with battles, disease, treasure, with rival factions battling for a crown with a ferocity worthy of Rider Haggard's lost tribes of Africa. But it is also the period of the proto-reformation foreshadowed by the great English Franciscans, Roger Bacon, Occam and Wycliffe, and their followers - the terribly persecuted Lollards and Brothers of the Free Spirit. KINGS OF ALBION is a wonderful book, richly descriptive, packed with action, savage and erotic, but informed with a spirit of inquiry and speculation that lifts it far above the conventional history novel.