Heron's Flight

Some five hundred years ago: a momentous battle is about to be fought between the armies of England and Scotland. With a young King Henry VIII embarked upon a military expedition in France, the ageing Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, is commissioned to muster a substantial English force and confront King James IV of Scotland. At the head of his troops, the Scottish monarch has crossed the border into England in a display of solidarity with his ally, the French Queen.

Thomas Howard must rely upon his considerable experience as a general, combatting not only the overwhelming might of Scotland's gathering forces but also the unfavourable conditions of wind and rain during his army's long and demanding march north. He must also reconcile himself to an English border terrain now entirely advantageous to the assembling Scots. However, notorious English outlaw John Heron, whose reputation and exploits are feared on both sides of the border, offers his services and those of his men, to the Earl of Surrey's cause…

In a cast of characters based on historical account, and largely faithful to the facts as they are known, Heron's Flight is a powerful and engaging portrayal of momentous events and their profound consequences. Noel Hodgson vividly renders the tragedy and folly that was Flodden, 1513. Yet Heron's Flight is a work of fiction, too, for where there was no historical fact to rely upon, characters and events have been drawn from the author's imagination, to conjure a story of adventure, ambition and daring as enlightening as any biography.

Heron’s Flight by Noel Hodgson | The Reiver Press | £7.50 | ISBN 978-0-9545181-3-4