Arrows of Albion Books in Order

The Arrows of Albion series follows Martin Kemp, an English archer whose life is bound up with the Hundred Years' War. The books begin in the 1340s, when Kemp joins the English army to escape the hangman and discovers that war offers far less romance than he imagined. What follows is a long, dangerous education in survival.

Kemp is a skilled longbowman, but that does not make him safe. He is a foot soldier, a prisoner, a mercenary, and at times a reluctant leader, moving through the battles and sieges that shape the conflict between England and France. The series starts with The Road to Crécy, then follows Kemp beyond the famous battle into the muddy, hungry, uncertain business of campaigning.

Chivalry looks different from the ground.

The action ranges across northern France, Brittany, Gascony, and the English-Scottish border. Kemp and his companions deal with hostile armies, shifting loyalties, feuds, raids, bad weather, and the problems that follow a soldier even when the fighting briefly stops. He often wants a clear cause or a dependable lord to serve, but the world around him rarely provides either.

A key thread is Kemp's relationship with the people who fight beside him. Friends, fellow archers, knights, and mercenaries can be as important to his survival as his bow. The books also return to the question of what a man owes his king, his comrades, and his own conscience when those loyalties pull in different directions.

The tone is brisk, tough, and grounded in campaign life. Passage at Arms takes Kemp to the siege of Calais, while later books such as Riders of Fury, An Arrow for the Crown, and The Warriors in the Snow widen the map and put him in fresh political and military traps. There is plenty of battlefield action, but the tension often comes from finding a way through a situation where every choice carries a cost.

Readers can start with The Road to Crécy for Kemp's full journey. The later novels build on his history, his friendships, and the consequences of earlier wars, so reading in order gives the strongest sense of how far he has traveled, and what the fighting has taken from him.