Alan Richard Lloyd (22 February 1927 – 12 April 2018) was an English writer. He was a journalist, novelist, and historian, and is most famous for his Kine Saga fantasy books. Lloyd also wrote adult fiction and non-fiction, most notably on the history of the British monarchy. His adult work is published under the name Alan Lloyd, whilst his children's work is published under A.R. Lloyd. His books have collectively been translated into six different languages.
Personal life Alan Lloyd was born on 22 February 1927 in London. He studied drawing and painting at the Kingston School of Art before being called up to the army in 1945, where he served with the Royal Fusiliers.
Lloyd was married to Daphne Lloyd; they had one son. For over 20 years, he resided at Pilgrims Cottage, a Grade II listed building in Warehorne, Kent.
He died on 12 April 2018 at the age of 91.
Career Lloyd started his writing career at the Jersey Evening Post and worked as a freelance journalist before becoming a full-time writer in 1962. His first book, published by Longmans in 1964, was The Drums of Kumasi, a non-fiction account of the Ashanti Wars. This was followed in 1966 by The Year of the Conqueror, a study of the events and people leading up to the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Further non-fiction work followed on the history of Spain, George III, King John and the Zulu War. His first fiction work, The Eighteenth Concubine, was published in 1972, and Kinethe first of his Kine Saga novelswas published in 1982. Wingfoot, his final book, was published in 1993.
Critical reception Alan Lloyd's works have been reviewed by a number of critics.
Reviews of non-fiction books The Drums of Kumasi, according to one reviewer, follows "one of the most bizarre [wars] in British colonial history", and that "Alan Lloyd does full justice to the gruesome story." However, they also highlighted the lack of "a voice from the ranks to supplement the accounts of ... Winwood Reade and H. M. Stanley". In another review, it was described as "an account of these campaigns which exploits their comic opera qualities and ... manages to convey some ... of the ... bloodiness of foot sloggin' over Africa." His depiction of Garnet Wolseley was also praised: "Lloyd, although inclined at times to judge his Victorians too harshly, gives Sir Garnet full credit for ... his military abilities." In the view of the critic, "The Drums of Kumasi ... reads like a historical satire, [with] the facts of the story provid[ing] a rich mixture of horror and adventure".
The Making of the King: 1066 was compared favourably to Eric Linklater's Conquest of England, and commended for both "[managing] to present an abundance of material at an unhurried pace", and "his detailsof the social systems of the nations, the type of weaponry used, the ultimate battle[that] add scope and interest beyond the story of the men." A different review stated that it "made [a] real contribution to our over-all understanding of the event" thanks to the "inclusion in his account many details of the actual conditions of life in England at the time of the Conquest". Writing for the New York Herald Tribune, Alan Pryce-Jones called it an "absorbing book", and that "the steady thump of battle is heard in every chapter". Pryce-Jones writes that due to "... the attrition of nearly a thousand years even the landscapes ... [of the book] have been made unrecognizable by time". Therefore, according to Pryce-Jones, "all the more credit, then, to Mr. Lloyd for discovering a shape and a texture to his stoгу." Another review of the book labelled it "a really masterful account of ... the royal stage of 11th-century England", further asserting that "Alan Lloyd breathes life and fire back into personages dead for 900 years." The critic named the "enliven[ment of] characters ... [beyond] good guys and bad guys", as well as the "translation of scholarly story ... into highly readable matter" as factors resulting in "fascinating reading".
Described as "staunchly interesting", The Spanish Centuries was praised for its "revisionary interpretation of Ferdinand and Isabella, ... Columbus and ... Cortez, and ... Simon Bolivar." However, the critic panned Lloyd's "distribution of space and attention" as "...nineteenth century Cuba and the present Franco regime do not get their due." A review in the San Bernardino Sun stated that the book covers "every significant landmark of Spanish history since 1492".
Franco divided critics. One reviewer characterised Lloyd's approach as "a journalistic rather than seriously analytic perspective". Furthermore, they state "[Franco is] light reading, then it's hard to say for whom, given the ... accessibility of [Hills' or Crozier's] more extensive recent studies." Another scathingly described Franco "as pedestrian and uninspiring as its non-smoking, non-drinking, puritanical non-hero", and called the book "remarkably uninformative". Lloyd's use of "journalistic cliches", in the opinion of the reviewer, is "a desperate sign of failure." Conversely, a review in the Rocky Mountain News described Franco as "a fascinating biography of the enigmatic Generalissimo combined with an informative and lucid interpretation of Spain's political history over the last 70 years." The reviewer praised Lloyd's decision to avoid "speculat[ing] on the probable course of politic[s] in Spain after Franco's passing", and for his "willing[ness] to rely upon history as the ultimate judge of the Franco era". Lastly, the reviewer expresses that Lloyd's "study of Franco is written with exceptional clarity and readability."
The King Who Lost America: A Portrait of the Life and Times of George III, a "spirited biography", was complimented for its "attention [to] various ... Whig sycophants and ministers, ... and on the King's innumerable brothers, sisters, and children". Lloyd, in the view of one critic, "manages to convey the vainglorious, self-seeking jobbery of the age"; the inclusion of the "French Wars, Irish Rebellions, the Gordon Riots and ... [industrialisation]" were also praised. While Lloyd was reproved for a lack of "original research", the critic described the book as "a light ... overview" and "rewarding". The Cameron Herald labelled it "a highly entertaining portrait". The book was directly compared to Stanley Ayling's George the Third by The Times Literary Supplement, who called it "a lighter and not always water-tight vessel, that ... [unlike Ayling's,] gives the reader a voyage over the darker waters of English life." James Grieve, writing for the Canberra Times, also compared The Wickedest Age to Ayling's George the Third''', as well as to John Brooke's King George III, and John Clarke's The Life and Times of George III. Grieve labelled Ayling's and Brooke's novels as "works of original scholarship, written primarily for specialists", while Lloyd's book was comparatively "a frankly derivative work, aimed at the general reader but soundly documented". The review also compared the physical qualities of the books: "The Collins and Constable volumes ... are a joy to handle, impeccably printed, fine and massive; the David and Charles, although well produced, has a more utility feel to it and there is a faint misty greyness to the print which makes one think one is reading in a poor light." Grieve writes that "Messrs Lloyd and Clarke have written what seem to me very good books of their type. The amateur historian in search of a readable and reliable introduction to... [the] age could do much worse than begin with Alan Lloyd or John Clarke." However, Grieve faults Lloyd's book for its coverage on "the king's illness", for his "recommend[ation of] Guttmacher's 30-year-old work on George's 'madness'" and as "[besides] one passing mention of porphyria, [he] says next to nothing on this rare disease".
In The Maligned Monarch: A Life of King John of England, labelled "his best book to date", Lloyd makes "a compelling argument" that the issues of King John's reign were "inherited from the reigns of his brother, ... and father", though the book, according to the critic, overlooks King John's "manic-depressive tendencies". The book was also lauded for "the author's detailed interpretation of ... the Magna Carta as an over-mythologized document regressively asserting feudal privilege". The Maligned Monarch was characterised as "a surprisingly readable and fair-minded" interpretation of King John. In another review, the book was praised for its "detailed research ... [that] paints a new, unique picture of King John of England as a non-monstrous and actually culturally progressive ruler", and dubbed an "engrossing biography".
Criticised for "devot[ing] half his book to Persia's imperial predecessors", Marathon: The Story of Civilizations on Collision Course was branded "a disappointment." The subtitle also came under fire for "... suggesting ... [a] clash between civilizations and cultures ... not borne out by his own narrative". Lloyd's description of the Greeks "is better", though "... he tends to idealize them". Mary Renault penned a different view of the book, writing that "nothing I know of ... has set out so vividly the backgrounds and contrasted traditions of the two great civilizations which were to clash at Marathon."