Stewart Binns: Crusade

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The senior adviser/minister/counsellor/earl marshal to a caliph. Usually a civilian in a clerical hierarchy. The word is found in Arabic, but also in Persian and Hindi and may be Indo-European in origin.

A blue dye made from the powdered and fermented leaves of the plant Isatis tinctoria , also known as Dyer’s Woad. The Celtic tribes of Britain, from before the Roman invasion and beyond, used woad to decorate themselves, both in times of peace and war.

A wyvern is a legendary winged creature with a dragon’s head and a barbed tail. The wyvern is often found in heraldry. A golden wyvern was the symbol of the ancient Kingdom of Wessex and the early kings of England up to Harold Godwinson. It was thought to have been one of his two banners at Senlac Ridge, the other being his personal standard, the Fighting Man.

To my wonderful wife, Lucy, our gorgeous sons Charlie and Jack, my eldest son Adam, his wife, Michelle, and my grandchildren, Sam and Jessica, of whom I am very proud and to all the inspirational friends and outstanding professionals who have made Crusade happen.

I could not have done it without you.

Not too much to ask, is it? It was in 1935 when Allen Lane, Managing Director of Bodley Head Publishers, stood on a platform at Exeter railway station looking for something good to read on his journey back to London. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor-quality paperbacks – the same choice faced every day by the vast majority of readers, few of whom could afford hardbacks. Lane’s disappointment and subsequent anger at the range of books generally available led him to found a company – and change the world.

We believed in the existence in this country of a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price, and staked everything on it’

The quality paperback had arrived – and not just in bookshops. Lane was adamant that his Penguins should appear in chain stores and tobacconists, and should cost no more than a packet of cigarettes.

Reading habits (and cigarette prices) have changed since 1935, but Penguin still believes in publishing the best books for everybody to enjoy. We still believe that good design costs no more than bad design, and we still believe that quality books published passionately and responsibly make the world a better place.

So wherever you see the little bird – whether it’s on a piece of prize-winning literary fiction or a celebrity autobiography, political tour de force or historical masterpiece, a serial-killer thriller, reference book, world classic or a piece of pure escapism – you can bet that it represents the very best that the genre has to offer.

Stewart Binns began his professional life as an academic. He then pursued several adventures, including that of a schoolteacher, specializing in history, before becoming an award-winning documentary-maker and latterly an author. His television credits include the ‘In-Colour’ genre of historical documentaries, notably the BAFTA and Grierson winner Britain at War in Colour and the Peabody winner The Second World War in Colour.

He also launched Trans World Sport in 1987, Futbol Mundial in 1993, the International Olympic Commitee Camera of Record in 1994 and the Olympic Television Archive Bureau in 1996.

Currently Chief Executive and co-founder, with his wife Lucy, of the independent production and distribution company Big Ape Media International. His first novel, Conquest, was published in 2011 and is available in Penguin paperback. Crusade is the sequel.

Stewart’s passion is English history, especially its origins and folklore. His home is in Somerset, where he lives with his wife Lucy and twin boys, Charlie and Jack.

www.stewartbinns.com

Published by the Penguin Group

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First published 2012

Copyright © Stewart Binns, 2012

Cover illustration: Nik Keevil

All rights reserved

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

ISBN: 978-0-241-95758-5