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Author

Griff Hosker

1950

195 fiction

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

Al-Andalus711–1492 CE Allied Invasion of Sicily1943 Anglo-Saxon Englandc. 476–1066 CE Armistice and Aftermath of World War I1918–1923 CE Arthurian BritainLegendary setting, conventionally c. 5th–6th centuries CE Battle of Agincourt1415 CE Battle of Assaye1803 Battle of Bannockburn1314 CE Battle of Crécy1346 CE Battle of Flodden1513 CE Battle of Gettysburg1863 CE Battle of Hastings1066 CE Battle of Mons Graupius83 CE Battle of Omdurman1898 Battle of Poitiers1356 CE Battle of Rorke’s Drift1879 Battle of Stamford Bridge1066 CE Battle of Stirling Bridge1297 CE Battle of the Somme1916 CE Battle of Waterloo1815-06-18 Boudican Revolt60–61 CE British Mandate in Iraq and the 1920 Revolt1920–1932 Byzantine Empire476–1453 CE Carthage814–146 BCE Christianisation of Scandinaviac. 800–1200 CE Crusades1095–1291 CE D-Day and Normandy Campaign1944 CE Danelaw865–954 CE Danish Conquest of England1003–1016 Dieppe Raid1942 Early Medieval Rheged and Northumbria476–700 East India Company Ascendancy1757–1833 CE Edward I’s Conquest of Wales1277–1283 CE Edwardian Era1901–1914 CE First Battle of Lincoln1141 CE Glyndŵr Rising1400–1415 CE Hadrian’s Wall122–410 CE Harrying of the North1069–1070 CE Invasion of England and Deposition of Edward II1326–1327 CE Joan of Arc1412–1431 CE Korean War1950–1953 CE Late Medieval France1300–1499 CE Medieval England after the Norman Conquest1071–1300 CE Medieval Italy476–1494 CE Norman Conquest of England1066–1071 CE Norman Invasion of Ireland1169–1177 Norse Exploration of the North Atlanticc. 870–1100 CE North African Campaign1940–1943 CE Reign of Hadrian117–138 CE Reign of Henry VII1485–1509 CE Reign of Henry VIII1509–1547 CE Rise of Normandy and the Duchy of Normandy911–1066 Roman Britain under the Flavians69–96 CE Scheldt Campaign and Battle for Antwerp1944 Second Punic War218–201 BCE Siege of Badajoz1812-03-16–1812-04-06 The Blitz1940–1941 CE Third Crusade1189–1192 CE Thirty Years’ War1618–1648 CE Thomas Becket and Church–Crown Conflict1162–1170 CE Viking Age793–1066 CE Viking Age Scandinavia793–1066 CE World War I Air War1914–1918

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Griff Hosker (25 series)

Conquest in Order

by Griff Hosker 4 books 4.6(4,479)

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…

Lord Edward’s Archer in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.5(51,903)

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…

Dragonheart in Order

by Griff Hosker 22 books 4.5(42,998)

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…

Border Knight in Order

by Griff Hosker 15 books 4.5(24,915)

Sir John Hawkwood in Order

by Griff Hosker 7 books 4.5(20,893)

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…

Struggle for a Crown in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.5(19,374)

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…

Norman Genesis in Order

by Griff Hosker 11 books 4.5(18,102)

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…

British Ace in Order

by Griff Hosker 7 books 4.5(12,283)

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…

New World in Order

by Griff Hosker 7 books 4.5(12,173)

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…

Soldier of the Queen in Order

by Griff Hosker 6 books 4.5(8,768)

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(7,308)

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.

Danelaw Saga in Order

by Griff Hosker 5 books 4.5(6,080)

The Danelaw Saga follows Sven Saxon Sword through the late Anglo-Saxon world as Danish pressure, weak kingship and the rise of Cnut transform England. The sequence is set around the final decades before the Danish conquest, where local war leaders, oath-bound households and shifting loyalties exist between Anglo-Saxon…

English Mercenary in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.5(5,420)

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…

Tudor Warrior in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.5(3,236)

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…

Reconquista Chronicles in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.5(3,125)

Reconquista Chronicles follows Castilian warfare in eleventh-century Spain, centred on the world of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid. The books use Christian and Muslim frontier politics, service to rival rulers and the struggle for Valencia to show the Reconquista as a world of shifting allegiance rather than…

Rifleman in Order

by Griff Hosker 2 books 4.5(1,859)

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.

The Anarchy Series in Order

by Griff Hosker 20 books 4.4(42,540)

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…

Combined Operations in Order

by Griff Hosker 12 books 4.4(18,950)

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…

Wolf Brethren in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4(13,641)

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.

The Sword of Cartimandua in Order

by Griff Hosker 13 books 4.4(13,425)

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…

Napoleonic Horseman in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4(12,740)

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.

East Indiaman Saga in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.4(5,504)

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…

Aelfraed in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.4(3,789)

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…

Lucky Jack’s Civil War in Order

by Griff Hosker 3 books 4.2(3,880)

Lucky Jack’s Civil War follows cavalry and raiding in the American Civil War from the Confederate side. The books use irregular operations, scouting, raids and the road to Gettysburg to show a mobile war of risk, divided loyalties and battlefield escalation.

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