Grail Quest Books In Order

Publication Order of Grail Quest Books

Bernard Cornwell is an author of fiction. He grew up in England and was born in 1944 in London. He is known for his many novels and series. His novels were optioned and made into feature films with 2015’s The Last Kingdom and 2016’s Rebel.

Bernard Cornwell was raised in Essex and was adopted and raised by a different family. However, they also belonged to what could be called a cult, a strict religious sect that had unusual rules. Bernard eventually left his adopted home and changed his last name back to that of his mother’s.

He went to primary school and attended the University of London for his higher studies, graduating and working for a time as a teacher. He also wanted to enlist and serve for the armed forces, however, it was not to be as he was rejected several times. Cornwell then joined the BBC subdivision Nationwide.

This kicked off a career in the media that would serve him well. He would then be promoted to the head of current affairs and move on to a new job working with BBC Northern Ireland. He would then serve as the editor for Thames News on Thames Television.

When he got married to his wife, he decided to relocate from Europe to America, moving there in 1980 to be with his spouse. However, getting paid work was a little difficult at first as he found out that getting a green card was going to be difficult. With no options for work, he thought that at the very least he could try his hand out at writing novels, something he enjoyed and did not require him to have a green card in order to do.

Even though he had never written before, Cornwell did have inspirations. He had always enjoyed the novels of C.S. Forester. These books followed an invented character and their exploits during a historical period of time; the Napoleonic Wars. The author was surprised when he found out that there were not many stories that featured the land campaign of the very real Lord Wellington. He decided to write something based off that and named the character Richard Sharpe.

Cornwell wrote Sharpe’s Eagle and then followed it up with Sharpe’s Gold. With the debut novel picked up for publishing and interest sparking, he received a deal for three novels with the publisher. The third novel is called Sharpe’s Company. He would write eight books more to complete this series. One of the books, Sharpe’s Rifles, was also specifically written to be adapted into a set of movies that aired on television.

The author has worked with his wife on books as well. Bernard and Judy composed a series of books under the pen name Susannah Kells. It was the name use for A Crowning Mercy and the other novels that followed, Fallen Angels as well as Coat of Arms and Redcoat, which is set in the Revolutionary War time period.

He is the creator and the writer of the Grail Quest series. The series kicked off in 2000 with the release of the debut novel. It is titled Harlequin, but it also goes by the alternate title of The Archer’s Tale. The sequel came out two years later and is titled Vagabond.

Harlequin is the debut novel in Cornwell’s Grail Quest series. This action and adventure packed novel is the story of a young archer who wants to avenge the honor of his family and somehow ends up on the way to a quest to search for the Holy Grail.

The day is Easter, and it is dawn on an early morning in 1343. A French raiding band comes by boat to Hookton, a coastal English village. The only survivor of the brutal attack is a young man named Thomas. The attack was horrific and one knight in particular stands out in his mind– a knight all in black with a flag of hawks on a field– one that watched the entire attack in all its bloody savagery.

Thomas is left behind and no one knows that he survived. He watches the killers sail quickly back to where they came from and it is then that he decides that he will do whatever it takes to hold them responsible for the deaths of everyone that he knows in the town and his family. The archer will do what he can to pursue vengeance, and along the way reclaim a treasure that was stolen from the church by the knight.

Thomas must go to France and he decides to join the army. Edward the Third’s army is on the verge of invading the continent– an act that will kick off the famed Hundred Years’ War. The young archer is gifted with a bow and has been naturally skilled at it since a young age. He quickly becomes known as being one of the most accurate and deadly archers to belong to the army.

As the troops march for King Edward across the nation, Thomas keeps an eye out for his enemies. The second that he sees any sign of them and their flag, the archer knows what he will do. Chance has it that he saves a young woman from a wild crowd of people, and her nobleman father rewards him. Now Thomas has allies on his search for the black knight and relic and has a better chance than ever of succeeding in his quest.

Can this young man track down the Holy Grail at last? Will he succeed in tracking down the knight? Read Cornwell’s debut novel in the Grail Quest series!

Vagabond is the sequel in the Grail Quest series by Bernard Cornwell. This book is set four years after the events of the first novel. There is vague unrest about, but the archer must return to England once more on his quest to track down a relic.

War is still going on, and he has an enemy out there that he does not even know about. A Dominican Inquisitor is out to get him, and may just ruin his quest for vengeance entirely. Read Vagabond to find out how this story ends!