THE CRAKYS OF WAR opens with a returned envoy to China meeting an English scholar in Oxford in the mid-13th century to share a deadly secret. They vow that the knowledge of gunpowder must die with them as the consequences otherwise are too terrible to contemplate. The novel tells the story of its re-discovery, one man's obsession with the powder of death, and Edward III's determination to use it to his advantage. He does so at the Battle of Crecy, the first full-scale battle at which guns are deployed in the field. The nature of warfare is changed forever, and the world hears the death-knell of Knightly chivalry.

Author Biography

After a number of years working as a journalist, John Wilcox was lured into industry. In the mid-nineties he sold his company in order to devote himself to his first love, writing. His Simon Fonthill novels have been published to high acclaim and he has also published two works of non-fiction. John lives near SALISBURY