KEMP , PASSAGE AT ARMS - Martin Kemp's Adventures in the Hundred Years War by Hall, Daniel

London 1997, Orion, English first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 6x9, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 344 pages. AUTOGRAPHED EDITION, signed by the author on a custom book plate on the front free end paper. ---------------------- Second book in the Kemp saga. also writes the Killigrew series as Jonathan Lunn. The brilliant sequel to Hall's impressive debut, Kemp: The Road to Crecy.-----------------------------------------------------It is 1347 and the French, after a crushing defeat at Crecy, are licking their wounds while their King raises a new army. Locked into a fruitless siege, the English are camped in the marshes around Calais. Among them is the foot soldier and archer, Martin Kemp, whose dreams of serving his King and reliving the chivalric adventures of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table are tempered by the gory and brutal reality of siege warfare. Having narrowly escaped death in a surprise attack from the French, Kemp leaves the King's service when a shaky truce is signed.---------------------------------------------------------------But there's no such thing as peace for a man like Kemp. He quickly becomes embroiled in the bitter rivalry between his commander, Thomas Holland, and William Montague over the beautiful woman they both claim to have married. This is only the start of a series of adventures which will take Kemp to a London caught in the grip of the Black Death; to Avignon where he falls foul of the ruthless French knight Sir Geoffroi de Chargny; and finally back to Calais where it all began.Daniel Hall's new novel combines an authentic feeling for place and period with a narrative verve and excitement that sweep the reader along - the result is a marvellously entertaining medieval action thriller.