Farewell to Robin Hood and Alan Dale
Robin Hood and the Holy Grail is now out in paperback and eBook, and the audio book will be out soon. This is the last novel in the Outlaw Chronicles after nearly twenty years of writing them. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride as much as I have.
I never imagined, nearly twenty years ago when as a journalist on the staff of The Times I began writing Outlaw, the first novel in the Outlaw Chronicles series, that I would find myself in 2026 publishing the 12th and final book in this much-loved series – Robin Hood and the Holy Grail. Particularly since I killed off both Robin Hood and Alan Dale, in 2016, with The Death of Robin Hood.
I thought I was done with the Sherwood boys then and, to be honest, after writing eight novels about them in eight years, I was a bit tired of that motley outlaw crew – fed up with Alan Dale’s noble dim-wittedness, and Robin’s cruelty and cultivated air of mystery. I was even sick of Little John’s silly blasphemous jokes – by God’s tangled testicles I was. So I parted terms amicably with Little, Brown, the publisher of the eight original novels, and moved on to other writing projects.
As a diligent author, I keep in touch with my readers, and quite often ask them what they would like me to write next, and to my surprise I kept getting requests for more Robin Hood and Alan Dale stories. It did no good for me to explain to my fans that The Death of Robin Hood had done exactly what it said on the tin.
I wrote the Holcroft Blood trilogy, set in the 17th century, and while I thought it was some of my best work, hardly anybody bought the books. I’m still not sure why. And when I did another poll of my readers, they were still asking for more Outlaw Chronicles.
Then Covid-19 came along. I had the first book in a Viking series with Canelo, my new publisher (The Last Berserker) but everything was put on hold while all the hospitals filled up and we were all locked down in our homes. And since I had almost no money coming in – self-employed writers got a big fat zero in the way of help from the government during that furlong bonanza – I decided to write Robin Hood and the Caliph’s Gold, which I self-published in 2020. To my surprise, it worked. People seemed to enjoy this new tale, which fitted chronologically in between Holy Warrior and King’s Man. I made some badly needed money. I also found that I rather enjoyed revisiting the Sherwood lads and chronicling their further bloody adventures. So I wrote and self-published another one that same Covid-stricken year, Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones.
Then, the epidemic passed, and my life was taken over again by mainstream publishing – five Fire Born Viking books were brought out in four years by Canelo, and I began a new project for that publisher about an Englishman who fought for Genghis Khan – Templar Traitor. (You might like to know that Book 2 in that series, Templar Assassin, comes out later this month.)
However, while I had mild bouts of Covid a couple of times, I had been more seriously infected by the self-publishing bug. It was relatively straightforward and I was in total control of the publishing process. The quality of the editing and covers is not as high, and you get no help in marketing the books, but I could write a novel in about four months and have in people’s hands in five.
So, here we are. Robin Hood and the Holy Grail will be the 24th novel of mine to be released into the world since Outlaw in 2009, and the fifth that I have self-published, which I think is not a bad score for eighteen years as a full-time professional author. And while I am still going to be bringing out traditionally published books – Templar Sacrifice, Book 3 of the Mongol Knight trilogy, will be out next summer – I’m pretty sure that also going to self-publish more novels towards the end of next year and beyond.
If you enjoy my stories, get in touch and tell me what you’d like to read next. I’m considering writing a Greek series set in 5th-century Athens (after the success of The Odyssey, Ancient Greece is in vogue) and I have an idea for a London-based Victorian crime series about a charming con man who swindles aristocrats. Just don’t ask me to write any more Outlaw Chronicles. Robin and Alan have definitely had their last hurrah.
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