Essex Dogs is by no means a remarkable book. But given this is historian Dan Jones’s first foray into writing fiction, I think it is good enough to be worth a quick read. Jones has had great success as a historian of the medieval world, particularly medieval England, and his tome, Power and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages was one of my favorite 2022 reads.
In Essex Dogs, Jones attempts to illustrate the early weeks of the Hundred Years War from the perspective of a band of ordinary soldiers: the Essex Dogs. As a fictionalized narrative tour of history, this book works really well, and it succeeded in teaching history through story (as all historical fiction should do). Jones’s years of experience writing on medieval warfare, politics, and everyday life serves him really well here, as Essex Dogs brings the gritty reality and barbarity of the period to life through grotesque scenes of medieval violence and filth.
Where this book falls short is in the fiction itself. Jones’s prose is unremarkable, and includes very little literary flair. Unlike many works of historical fiction, the dialogue feels jarringly modern, and other than repeated crude jokes about Christ, the saints, and the Virgin Mary, the locker room banter in this book sounds like it would fit better in the Normandy of 1944 than of 1346. The characters in Essex Dogs are simple, yet enjoyable. Each one fits into the exact archetypes you would expect (reluctant leader, burly warrior, troubled youth, weird priest, arrogant noble, entitled prince), so much so that they often feel like they belong in a roleplaying video game or movie script. The plot, similarly is incredibly straightforward, and plays out in a series of missions and fetch quests that, again, felt like novelized notes from the Assassin’s Creed developers’ files.
Overall, Essex Dogs is a fun read that does not take itself too seriously, and I think it works best as a companion piece to learning about the Hundred Years War. If you are open to being entertained by crude jokes and gory descriptions of blood splattering while heads and limbs fly across the battlefield, you will have a good time. If you are looking for a lofty literary experience full of deep characters and themes, this book will be as unwelcome as a crossbow bolt to the face.
I will probably pick up the inevitable sequel, if only to see how Dan Jones’s prose develops.
The Once and Future Lit 