Jonathan Sumption

The People, humanoid beings forced to emigrate to Earth when their home world is destroyed, settle in the American Southwest and attempt to preserve their culture and paranormal abilities.

Edward III lived through bloody and turbulent times. His father was deposed by his mother and her lover when he was a teenager; a third of England's population was killed by the Black Death during his reign and the Hundred Years War with France began under his leadership. Yet Edward managed to rule England for 50 years, and was viewed as a paragon of kingship by both his contemporaries and later generations: the triumphant victor of the battles of Sluys and Crécy; the founder of the Order of the Garter; his court the most famous center of chivalry in Europe. Jonathan Sumption's gripping new account of Edward's rise and fall brings to life a figure who was impulsive and warmongering, but also companionable, generous and addicted to practical jokes. He thirsted too much for glory, lived too long, and was condemned to see thirty years of conquests reversed in less than five, leaving his realm riven by internal disorder. Ultimately, Sumption shows us, Edward died a heroic failure. - Jacket flap.

This is the story of a war ... the Hundred Years War was the longest war in European history, a quarrel between cousins, Plantagenet and Valois, that embroiled two great nations in decades of blood and violence in the struggle for the French throne and the battle for control of French territory. It was a war which wrought great change in two medieval societies, ushering in the Renaissance and having repurcussions to the present day. Robin Neillands has written the first full-length general study of this period for over a decade. He takes an even-handed view of the struggle, featuring French victories as well as English triumphs. He goes behind the misconceptions of history to explain the causes of the conflict from the early campaigns to the final French Victory at Castillion.