Angus Donald
Angus Donald was born in China in 1965 and educated at Marlborough College and Edinburgh University.
He has worked as a fruit-picker in Greece, a waiter in New York and as an anthropologist studying magic and witchcraft in Indonesia.
For the past 20 years, he has been a journalist in Hong Kong, India, Afghanistan and London.
THE THRILLING NEW SERIES FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ‘OUTLAW CHRONICLES’. PERFECT FOR FANS OF BERNARD CORNWELL AND CONN IGGULDEN. AFTER THE TUDORS CAME THE STUARTS . . . London, Winter 1670. Holcroft Blood has entered the employ of the Duke of Buckingham, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom after the king. It is here that his education really begins. With a gift for numbers and decoding ciphers, Holcroft soon proves invaluable to the Duke, but when he’s pushed into a betrayal he risks everything for revenge. His father, Colonel Thomas Blood, has fallen on hard times. A man used to fighting, he lives by his wits and survives by whatever means necessary. When he’s asked to commit treason by stealing the crown jewels, he puts himself and his family in a dangerous situation – one that may end at the gallows. As the machinations of powerful men plot to secure the country’s future, both father and son must learn what it is to survive in a more dangerous battlefield than war – the court of King Charles II.
Review
Angus Donald has managed over the last 8 years to provide us with one of the best modern retelling’s of Robin Hood that you could ever possibly want to read. When it finished what would come next?
Colonel Blood is not an unknown character to me, but he is very much a little known enigma for many readers…..
So how would Angus bring this man alive?
The answer is through his own trials and those of his family and the daring theft of the Crown Jewels. The key character for me in this book is his son Holcroft Blood. Angus Donald brings to life the time period and the people, the nasty conniving Buckingham with his privilege and power, a spoiled king and various sections of society from the theater to the slums of London. While Angus tells the history lightly, he also manages to weave the reader right into the immediate so you feel part of the story not a voyeur in a tale.
By the end of the story Holcroft Blood has become a new fav character, a young man different from his peers, but gifted and talented in many ways, with an honour that leads him into some strange situations. His friend Jack Churchill and he bring the story to a very satisfying and tense conclusion, in a book with action and humour aplenty, setting the scene for what i feel will be a truly excellent series in the future…. book two cannot come soon enough for me.
Bravo Angus…. loved this book
(Parm)
1. Outlaw (2009)
2. Holy Warrior (2010)
3. King’s Man (2011)
4. Warlord (2012)
5. Grail Knight (2013)
6. The Iron Castle (2014)
7. The King’s Assassin (2015)
8. The Death of Robin Hood (2016)
The Rise of Robin Hood (2013)
The Betrayal of Father Tuck (2013)
The Hostility of Hanno (2013)
1. Blood’s Game (2017)
2. Blood’s Revolution (2018)
