Judy's Review:
If you hesitate before picking up a novel based on historical fiction, don’t dither over dropping this one into your holiday reading bag – author Dan Jones has brought the past vividly, gloriously, and sometimes hilariously to life. Considering he’s writing about events back in July 1346, more than 675 years ago, that’s quite an achievement. Indeed there’s something almost cinematic about this story. If you’ve seen Stephen Spielberg’s WW2 movie Saving Private Ryan, the opening pages of Essex Dogs will bring it vividly to mind. Landing craft are crashing through the Normandy surf in a full-scale invasion of France; the men aboard – our Essex Dogs – must somehow avoid drowning and then immediately tackle the fierce defenders on the heights above the beachhead. It's an incredibly exciting opening and the pace doesn’t drop until you’ve turned the last page. A cracking read.