This romp through fourteenth-century England and France is Conan Doyle at his best - at least, that is what he himself believed, and it was his favourite among his own books. Sherlock Holmes fans might not agree. Still, the hand is the same; only here, when Conan Doyle tells us that the game is afoot he means that the English are excitedly preparing to invade France yet once more on behalf of their king, Edward III, and his son the Black Prince, who own half of France by right anyway (being the Dukes of Aquitaine, Normandy etc) and lay claim to the rest, not without some justification, since Edward III and his sons are the only direct descendants of Philip the Fair, who was Edward's grandfather.
Nevertheless, the attitude and atmosphere is much the same as one would expect today for an important international football or rugby match: it is a game, like hunting. (An attitude and atmosphere which is substantially missing from more recent novels set during the Hundred Years War. Why? Because it is not "politically correct"?)
The book opens at Beaulieu Abbey, in the south of England, where we witness two inmates, neither of them actually monks, take their leave of the monastic life. One is Big John of Hordle, who is expelled for a variety of heinous offences such as eating and drinking more than his portion, and carrying a maiden across a stream "to the infinite relish of the devil and the exceeding detriment of his own soul, which scandalous and willful falling away was witnessed by three members of our order".
The other is our hero, Alleyne Edricson, who having passed his childhood and youth in the abbey, is now, in accordance with his father's will, to spend one year outside in the big world before finally committing himself to the life of a monk.
Needless to say, the pious youth, who would much rather have stayed in the abbey, and the wild ex-novice, who only entered the monastery in a fit of passion after his girlfriend chose another man, become the best of friends. We follow their adventures together as they join the celebrated White Company of knights and archers and cross to France and see for themselves how exciting life can be.
The year passes. Will Alleyne return to the monastery?
Or will he marry the most beautiful maiden in Hampshire?
One guess.
Stirring stuff. But no magic - or mystery. A few thought-
provoking and very medieval lines though, like: "To the seeing eye, decay is as fair as growth, and death as life."
JM
