After trudging through a pack of crappy books lately, King Edward III by Michael Packe was a godsend. It is such a pleasure to read a work on a favorite subject that is well written and you enjoy thoroughly. Too many times have I started a book on something I enjoy reading about only to discover that it is poorly written or incredibly boring. This book was just the opposite.
This work is detailed and vivid. He does not give you verbatum the accounts of 4 different chronicles of the same event. He is author and as such has taken charge of his book and is selective of what he includes in it. On the whole the book is also unbiased and fair to Edward III memory, which is a rarity on anything pertaining to the Hundred Years War.
There is one section that Mr. Packe dwells WAY too long on about whether or not Edward committed rape. This is a biography and would be an important event in any such work, but to the military history-minded like myself, it was a bit of a bore. Mr. Packe did resort to what I call "dueling chroniclers" and spent a bit too much time as well exploring the exact identity or the supposed victim.
All in all a great book and I recommend it. Probably the authoritive biography on this great king. ( )