Review: The Road to Poitiers

Jonathan Lunn, The Road to Poitiers (Canelo Adventure 2024)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/202517754-kemp?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=yIXC8T2bZX&rank=1

September 1356. Martin Kemp and his archers ride with the Black Prince and the Anglo-Gaston army, pillaging their way across France. Their aim is to rendezvous with the Duke of Lancaster’s forces at Châtellerault, but they find all the bridges across the Loire destroyed. Will Kemp be able to rescue his lady love Ysabeau and win her hand?
The story begins right in the heat of battle—the enemy ‘less than a furlong behind him’—almost too exciting, because unless we’ve read Books 1-7 (this is Book 8 in the Arrows of Albion series) we’re not yet familiar with the protagonist.
A rich period of history, many many characters. The varied viewpoints are hard to keep up with, in places, but they add to the feeling of breathlessness of pace and keep faithful to the real history.
Besides Kemp’s’ sworn foe, the Chamberlain Geoffroi de Charny (owner of the Turin Shroud), whom he once enjoyed ‘p***ing on’, and my ancestors the Douglases, there are some surprises as to who is marching with the French.
The genius loci is so good you’d be sure the author must have been there. We feel the hard-bitten partisanship, the ‘bile rocket[ing] up [their] gullets’; we hear ‘the jingle of crotal bells’ of the pursuing enemy. We learn details about mediaeval warfare and enjoy discussions of religious philosophy that were common at the time.
The dialogue and the rough talk of the soldiers is vivid and believably of the time. The French calling English archers ‘les goddams’ referencing their constant cursing (e.g. ‘Go… fry mice, ye mumping carrion crow’); the English denying King Jean II’s right to the French throne by calling him ‘the Crowned One’.
Fans of military fiction will love this. Spoiler alert: the English win this one, but the French eventually win the war.
This review first appeared in Historical Novels Review.