Author Description

Sequel to The Kings of Vain Intent.Graham Shelby has established an impressive reputation as an historical novelist. In THE KNIGHTS OF DARK RENOWN and its sequel THE KINGS OF VAIN INTENT he captured the glittering world of the Crusade. In THE VILLAINS OF THE PIECE he turned to Stephen and Matilda, and an England racked by civil war.THE DEVIL IS LOOSE describes with the same vigour and authenticity the rise to power of the Angevin brothers, Richard the Lionheart and John called Lackland. Richard, the master of war and the victim of his own temperament; John, manoeuvring to move clear of his brother's long shadow.between them stand the shrewd politician, Philip of France, eager to play off one against the other, and the great model of chivalry, William Marshal, the knight who had served their father Henry Il and never betrayed his troth.As the action unfolds we see what a price was paid by a medieval realm for the absence of its monarch: how quickly a violent and unruly society threw off the thin constraints of order and loyalty: how rare was the man who could be relied on to fulfil a position of trust and to keep faith. Set against the harsh and colourful background of the times, the characters stand out sharply as individuals, their loyalties tested to breaking point—or beyond.Graham Shelby is now completing the sequel, in which Marshal's fortunes and John's chequered career reach their climax on the island of Runnymede.