The Paladin: George Shipway

Normandy: 11th century: Young Walter has grown up at the abbey of Evreux, believing himself the son of the abbey’s superintendent Dean Fulk, and earns the nickname Tirel for his skill at archery. An unfortunate incident leads to him being sent away to endure the rigorous training of a squire in William the Conqueror’s household. At the same time he learns his true lineage, and how he has been deprived of his inheritance. He finds a friend in the Conqueror’s second son William Rufus, but is disgusted by certain aspects of his behaviour. He must also attach himself to Rufus’s feckless elder brother Robert Curthose in the hope of making his fortune and regaining his inheritance, but this leads him to make new enemies, and brings him together with his childhood sweetheart, the warrior-lady Isabel of Conches.

‘You could easily vaunt Goerge Shipway’s latest novel as a saga of nymphomania, homosexuality, torture witchcraft and bloodshed But that would be to do it a great deal less than justice, for THE PALADIN blends its… ingredients into a very civilised novel.’
Daily Mail

This book was first published in the 1970s and has since been out of print. Contains passages which may be offensive to LGBT readers.