The Game of Kings

I have read and re-read the six books in the late Dame Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond Chronicles numerous times, and each time I find something new.

Dunnett keeps me spellbound; I love the sharp dialogue, the political and domestic intrigue, the way the very flawed hero, Francis Crawford, creates havoc for his own gains, while also acting on behalf of his monarch, the young Mary, Queen of Scots. This is well-researched, exciting, intriguing historical fiction at its best.

In the character of Francis Crawford of Lymond, Dorothy Dunnett created one of the most memorable heroes in historical fiction. I lived for the next book in the series. Lymond was mercurial, malicious, loving, insouciant, flawed, and fearless – and yet believable and very human. Dunnett brought 16th-century Scotland and the borderlands to life, even to the songs and the literature. It was a world entirely real to the reader and one in which, despite unexpected tragedy, elsewhere in the story, there could be a sense of humor.

This is a slight cheat, as Mary is only a minor character who is a small child at this point, but Game of Kings is one of my all-time favourite books, so I’ll use any excuse to recommend it! It’s the first of a six-volume sequence featuring the brilliant but deeply flawed hero Francis Crawford, who weaves his way around the (impeccably researched) major historical events of the early years of Mary’s life, at times as her protector, at others trying to unravel the complexities of his own life. I was hooked from the first page and it gave me… show more.