Customer Reviews

William Wallace: The King's Enemy

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A wonderful account of a mans passion for life and his integrity that could not be compromised. As mentioned in other reviews, I did see the movie Braveheart and wished to make a comparision. I am please to say that although they were differences there were no discrepancies. This was a easy read and I recommend it for any history buff. I am in the process of reading another account of William Wallances life. I understand that there are a couple of books in publication with regard to The King's Enemy and I plan to read them all. My ancestors are from Scotland and my interest lies in absorbing as much about this country before I visit. Once again a good read!

a nicely written synopsis that can be read on vacation and enjoyed for hitting the high points and amusingly trailing off into interesting theories and ideas.

Brief in scope but informative enough to satisfy your curiosity about this fascinating subject.

A very nice read.

An excellent account of the life and times of William Wallace. I would especially recommend it to anyone who has seen the movie "Braveheart" and wants to learn more about the actual history13th century Scotland. This book is short and readable enough for the layman while still containing enough substance to be worth reading.

The book could be made more accessible to a mass audience by including a better map and other appendices such as a timeline and family trees. Overall though, it's well written and definitely worth reading!

An easy read for someone who is interested in William Wallace (Braveheart) and the medieval history of Scotland. Book gets bogged down in the family trees of the Scotish nobles and their varying politics. Edward I depicted as a less than desireable ruler of England and Scotland. The description of the battles is of interest, and the reason why Wallace failed, where Robert the Bruce later had success.

Naturally with Braveheart ( and all its errors!! ) people with curiosity about one of Scotland's greatest Heroes have questions. This book goes a long way to presenting fact from fiction. Gray's work is easy to read, well balanced account of Scotland and Wallace.
Gray starts with the background and clime of Scotland before Wallace came into play. Gives you chapters on Edward Longshanks moving through Balliol being raised to King by Edward's Great Cause, and sets the stage for the rising of Wallace. He work is well thought out, just not another repeating of tales, balancing previous details put forward about Wallace with whether they were truth or not.

And excellent work for anyone wishing to learn more about Wallace.

An entertaining read but more opinion than fact based. Plenty of references but even more conjecture and supposition. Was Wallace so virtuous and Edward so evil? I don't think so. A book written to support the author's point of view with very little objectivity. The writing style is at times difficult to follow with events being related out of sequence or seemingly unrelated to the points being made...this is hardly a scholarly work. There must be better books on this subject....

This is almost certainly the worst-written history I have ever read, if it can even be called a history. D.J. Gray seems to have read a few well-regarded histories of Scotland and of Wallace, pared them down to 152 pages, and then paraphrased them. Poorly. It is rare that I come across at least one sentence per page that makes me cringe with its awkwardness, and it is rare that the thought persists so in my mind: I could write better than this guy. I know this may come across as hyperbole, but it is not. This book truly has the writing quality of a college essay.

Not only is the prose amateurish, but the flow of the story is atrocious. Frequently, the author inserts anecdotes with no context, failing to explain their relevance to the surrounding text. The author's analysis of the earliest historical sources on William Wallace is poorly explained, leaving the reader with little understanding of the contradictions that exist among those sources, or of the author's process of reconciling them.

Perhaps most glaringly, Gray fails to provide original insights or analysis of his own. Entire sections are merely paraphrased from other, more accomplished historians, as is immediately obvious from a glance at the "References" section.

As a work of prose, this book is appalling. As a work of history, it is a joke. Readers would be better served by purchasing one of the few books on which Gray relies almost exclusively for his knowledge, such as The Scottish War of Independence, by Evan Macleod Barron; William Wallace, Guardian of Scotland, by James Fergusson; or Sir William Wallace, by A.F. Murison. These are the giants on whose shoulders D.J. Gray stood to produce his book.

This is in places an engaging read, as Gray's passion for his subject is evident everywhere. But what makes it engaging in some places makes it amateurish in others, because Gray's biases too often color his historical objectivity. He often openly ignores documented fact--or the lack thereof--in order to speculate on the emotions and thought processes not only of Wallace, but also of Robert the Bruce, Edward I, and many other figures key to the war for Scottish independence. He also relies heavily on folkloric sources like the Wallace-idolizing Harry the Blind, who Gray admits is biased but to whom Gray refers more than any other source. The book's organization leaves much to be desired, too; it reads more like a masters thesis than a carefully vetted work of professional scholarship. A good effort if Gray was indeed a grad student when he wrote this, but mostly, this book just makes me want to track down a more reliable source. Perhaps I made a mistake by reading this after Ronald McNair Scott's masterful treatment of Robert the Bruce.

Good book for who like William Wallace and the movie Braveheart. Many historical facts. But sometimens difficult to understand the author. Nice!

After watching Braveheart I read this book in an attempt to clear the "Hollywoodaztion" from the main character. The Author is a Proffessor of history in Scotland and lives in Sterling I belive. This book makes the Braveheart character seem nice . It reads like a text book and gets hard to follow at points with all the swapping of aligences and the different fighting factions, BUT , it is a must read for anyone that whats to know about the real William Wallace, his deeds and his battles. I enjoyed it and am getting ready to read it for the 2nd time. If you are Scots or just want to belive in the human triumph of spirit this is a TRUE book for you.