Julian Rathbone Libri

On the Sussex Downs in 1066, the psychotic William and his gang of European mercenaries began the process which fragmented a civilisation. Walt, the last of King Harold's bodyguard, the one who survived Hastings, wanders across Asia Minor in the company of Quint, an intellectual renegade monk. On the way he unfolds the events that led up to the battle which affected the destinies of every English man and woman. With rare skill, Rathbone vividly recreates a civilisation that stubbornly remains alive in the collective memory to this day, and so identifies the roots of the still-held belief that every English person is born free and should stay free. Tender romance, savage war, courtly intrigue and some wry humour combine to make THE LAST ENGLISH KING an exhilarating roller-coaster ride into our past.

England, 1460: The War of the Roses. Rival factions - Lancastrians and Yorkists - are hacking each other to death in a conflict that only the English could name after a beautifully-scented flower. It's not an ideal climate for tourists - but three exotic travellers from the Far East are not here for pleasure. They've come to find a missing kinsman. The English, however, are truly strange. Most of the indigenous population are of the cowed peasant variety whilst any noble who can't trace his ancestry to Norman Conquest isn't, really, an awfully nice chap. In between battles of the most astonishing brutality they convey respects instead of affection, make love strangely (and briefly) and amuse themselves by playing a game with an inflated bladder that is in everyway a war except it's called 'footie'. The Indians think they're mad. They also have this horrible suspicion that one day they will rule the world... A wonderfully offbeat take on medieval England at its most brutal and savage, KINGS OF ALBION snatches history, imbues it with the spirit of Rider Haggard and Joseph Conrad, turns it on its head, invites scintillating speculation and, best of all, renders it into a fabulously readable novel.

1460. Auf den britischen Inseln sind die Engländer bereits seit fünf Jahren damit beschäftigt, sich gegenseitig umzubringen. Anhänger Lancasters und Yorkisten ringen um die Thronfolge im Hause Plantagenet, und ein Ende ist nicht abzusehen. In dieses blutige Treiben mischt sich eine wunderliche Reisegesellschaft: Prinz Harihara, Gesandter des sagenhaften indischen Königreichs Vijayanagara, hat sich auf die weite Reise begeben, um seinen verschollenen Bruder Jehan zu suchen, der sich in 'Ingerlond' dem geheimnisvollen Orden der Brüder des freien Geistes angeschlossen haben soll. Mit viel Witz und Ironie erzählt Julian Rathbone vom Aufeinanderprallen der Kulturen – historisch genau, literarisch lebendig und immer wieder einfach saukomisch.