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Historical Bookshelf
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Author

Griff Hosker

1950

Griff Hosker is a prolific historical novelist whose long-running series cover Roman, Viking, medieval, early modern and modern military history.

Griff Hosker was born in St Helens in 1950 and spent more than three decades as an English teacher before becoming a full-time writer. A lifelong interest in history, historical fiction and wargaming supplied the background for his first novels, which he began publishing in 2011. His teaching career and extensive reading helped him develop a clear, episodic style suited to long sequences in which characters age, gain rank and pass responsibility to later generations.

Hosker’s large body of work ranges from Roman Britain and the Viking world to the Norman Conquest, the Anarchy, the Hundred Years’ War, Tudor conflict and the world wars. Series such as Dragonheart, The Anarchy, Lord Edward’s Archer and the Sir John Hawkwood books emphasise campaigning, border warfare and the formation of military households. Many of his novels follow comparatively ordinary warriors whose advancement provides access to wider political events without losing the practical detail of travel, weapons and command. Hosker is particularly suitable for readers who enjoy rapid publication, extensive reading orders and military adventures that continue across many volumes.

Periods and events

Viking Age Danelaw Viking Age Scandinavia Norse Exploration of the North Atlantic Christianisation of Scandinavia Norman Conquest of England Rise of Normandy and the Duchy of Normandy Late Medieval Hundred Years’ War Battle of Agincourt Joan of Arc Glyndŵr Rising Anglo-Saxon England Battle of Hastings

Series

Series by Griff Hosker (26 series)

Dragonheart in Order

by Griff Hosker 22 books 4.5

Dragonheart is a long Viking saga centred on Jarl Dragon Heart, his kin and his warrior band. The books move through raiding, revenge, settlement, family succession and conflict across the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man, Saxon England, Norway and wider Viking routes. The sequence is less a…

Norman Genesis in Order

by Griff Hosker 11 books 4.5

Norman Genesis follows the Scandinavian roots of Normandy, beginning with Hrolf/Rollo and the Viking world that produced the first Norman rulers. The series shows raiding, Frankish politics, settlement and the gradual transformation of a war band into a ducal dynasty. It acts as a prehistory to later Norman…

Struggle for a Crown in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.5

Struggle for a Crown follows soldiers and retainers through the crises of late medieval England and France. The series moves from Richard II and Henry IV to Henry V, Agincourt, the later Hundred Years’ War and the struggle to hold English power in France. It is a dynastic…

Conquest in Order

by Griff Hosker 4 books 4.6

Conquest follows England after the Norman victory of 1066. The books use Hastings, rebellion, occupation and the consolidation of William the Conqueror’s rule to show how conquest continues long after a single battle is won. The series is strongest as a post-Conquest saga about dispossession, resistance, new lordship…

Soldier of the Queen in Order

by Griff Hosker 6 books 4.5

Soldier of the Queen follows the Roberts family through the late Victorian and Edwardian imperial army. The books move from Rorke’s Drift and Egypt to Sudan, oil interests, desert garrisons and pre-war diplomacy, showing imperial soldiering as a mixture of danger, ambition, family strain and long overseas service.

Norseman in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.5

Norseman is a compact Viking adventure sequence about raids, revenge and sea-borne power. The books use the North Atlantic and Scandinavian world as a setting for warrior identity, family vengeance and the search for land, wealth and reputation.

Tudor Warrior in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.5

Tudor Warrior follows James of Ecclestone through early Tudor politics, espionage and war. The series begins under Henry VII, uses the lingering threat of Yorkist claimants such as Perkin Warbeck, and moves toward Henry VIII and Flodden. It is a short sequence about service to a new dynasty…

New World in Order

by Griff Hosker 7 books 4.5

New World is a Viking exploration saga about Norse movement across the Atlantic. The sequence follows seafarers, settlers and raiders as they leave familiar waters for Greenland, Vinland and the edge of the known world. It is built around navigation, kinship, survival and the unstable relationship between discovery…

Rifleman in Order

by Griff Hosker 2 books 4.5

Rifleman follows John Sharratt from wartime loss and conscription into the British Army during the Second World War. The sequence moves from the Blitz and training into the North African desert, where ordinary infantry experience the pressure of modern war, retreat, endurance and battle against Rommel’s forces.

Lord Edward’s Archer in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.5

Lord Edward’s Archer follows Gerald Warbow from the Welsh Marches into the wars and political crises of Edward I and Edward II. The series combines archer warfare with the Second Barons’ War, Welsh resistance, crusading, the Scottish wars and court intrigue. It is a medieval military sequence about…

Sir John Hawkwood in Order

by Griff Hosker 7 books 4.5

Sir John Hawkwood follows the rise of an English soldier from the Hundred Years’ War into the world of mercenary companies in Italy. Beginning around Crécy and the Black Prince’s campaigns, the series moves toward the White Company and the condottieri, where professional soldiers sell skill, discipline and…

Napoleonic Horseman in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4

Napoleonic Horseman follows a cavalryman through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The series moves between French and British service, espionage, the Peninsular War, sieges and Waterloo, using mounted warfare to show how individual soldiers are pulled through the largest conflicts of the age.

The Anarchy Series in Order

by Griff Hosker 20 books 4.4

The Anarchy Series follows families, knights and warlords through the civil war between Stephen and Empress Matilda and into the Angevin settlement under Henry II. The sequence expands from northern England and Normandy to crusading, Wales, Ireland and the politics around Thomas Becket and Henry’s sons. It is…

English Mercenary in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.5

English Mercenary follows James Bretherton into the Thirty Years’ War, where English soldiers of fortune become caught in the religious and dynastic conflicts of central Europe. The sequence centres on cavalry service, Protestant armies and the Swedish intervention under Gustavus Adolphus, showing war as both profession and personal…

Wolf Brethren in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4

Wolf Brethren follows warlords and companions in post-Roman Britain, especially the northern world of Rheged, Northumbria and Saxon expansion. The series sits between Roman memory and early medieval kingdom-building, using legend, war bands and shifting alliances to show Britain before stable English and Welsh polities emerge.

British Ace in Order

by Griff Hosker 7 books 4.5

British Ace follows William Harsker from the opening months of the First World War into the rapidly changing world of aerial combat. The series moves from improvised reconnaissance and early fighter warfare through the Somme, Bloody April and the final year of the war, then carries Harsker into…

East Indiaman Saga in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.4

The East Indiaman Saga follows Bill “Smudger” Smith from London poverty into the world of the East India Company. The books move through company ships, soldiers, Indian campaigns and the Battle of Assaye, using the early nineteenth-century British presence in India as a setting for escape, military discipline…

Combined Operations in Order

by Griff Hosker 12 books 4.4

Combined Operations follows Tom Harsker and a commando unit through the Second World War and into Korea. The series begins with Britain under pressure in 1940 and moves through raids, occupied Europe, Dieppe, Sicily, D-Day, the Scheldt and the final advance into Germany before shifting to the Korean…

The Sword of Cartimandua in Order

by Griff Hosker 13 books 4.4

The Sword of Cartimandua is a Roman Britain sequence following auxiliary cavalry and frontier soldiers from the age of Cartimandua through the Flavian and early Hadrianic period. The books use Brigantian politics, Roman conquest, northern campaigning, Caledonia and Hadrian’s Wall to show Britain as a frontier province where…

Aelfraed in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.4

The Aelfraed trilogy follows Saxon survivors through the violent aftermath of 1066. Beginning before the Battle of Hastings and continuing through resistance, outlawry and exile, the series uses the collapse of Harold Godwinson’s England to follow housecarls and rebels forced to decide whether to keep fighting, submit to…

Carthaginian in Order

by Griff Hosker 1 book 4.4

The Carthaginian sequence begins in the world of Rome and Carthage, using the western Mediterranean as a setting for rivalry, survival and divided loyalties. The series sits naturally beside Punic War fiction, where military ambition, trade, family allegiance and the pressure of Roman expansion create a dangerous world…

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