Robin Hood (David Pilling) Books in Order

David Pilling’s Robin Hood series begins in 1224 and treats the legend as a hard, dangerous story of a young man pushed outside the law. Robyn Hode is not introduced as a ready-made folk hero. He is a yeoman farmer and petty thief whose conflict with royal officers forces him into the forest.

Outlawry is only the beginning.

In The First Arrow, Robyn must evade Sir Gui de Gisburne and survive the threats waiting beyond the reach of ordinary law. His flight brings him into contact with Hobbe of Wetherby, a feared killer whose help is as risky as the pursuit behind him.

The Wrath of God deepens Robyn’s conflict with corrupt church authority after betrayal and imprisonment. Tuck and Matilda become important allies as he gathers people who have their own reasons to resist. The familiar Robin Hood idea of helping the poor is present, but it grows out of political anger, personal injury, and the brutal limits placed on ordinary people.

In The Hooded Man, Robyn returns from military service to an England still marked by Norman power and unrest. Later books, Thief of Barnsdale and The King’s Pardon, continue the effort to balance private life, loyalty to companions, and a public reputation that makes him a threat to powerful enemies.

The series uses thirteenth-century England as more than a costume. Forests, villages, church lands, royal officers, and war all shape what Robyn can do. Pilling’s version is violent and politically charged, but it still has the pull of a classic outlaw adventure.

Begin with The First Arrow and read forward. The books work best as one developing account of how Robyn becomes the Hooded Man and what that name costs him.