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How long does it take to read The Archer's Tale?

Bernard Cornwell

The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell takes about 8 hours 22 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

Book 1 of The Grail Quest

Next: Vagabond

About 8 hours 22 minutes

A week or two of reading

First published 2000. 456 pages, about 125,400 words.

17 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 13 hours 56 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 8 hours 22 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 5 hours 14 minutes

The page count is the median across 28 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

At dawn on Easter morning 1343, a marauding band of French raiders arrives by boat to ambush the coastal English village of Hookton. To brave young Thomas, the only survivor, the horror of the attack is epitomized in the casual savagery of a particular black-clad knight, whose flag -- three yellow hawks on a blue field -- presides over the bloody affair. As the killers sail away, Thomas vows to avenge the murder of his townspeople and to recapture a holy treasure that the black knight stole from the church.To do this, Thomas of Hookton must first make his way to France; So in 1343 he joins the army of King Edward III as it is about to invade the continent -- the beginning of the Hundred Years War. A preternaturally gifted bowman, Thomas quickly becomes recognized as one of England's most deadly archers in King Edward's march across France. Yet he never stops scanning the horizon for his true enemy's flag.When Thomas saves a young Frenchwoman from a bloodthirsty crowd, her father -- French nobleman Sir Guillaume d'Evecque -- rewards his bravery by joining him in the hunt for the mysterious dark knight and the stolen holy relic. What begins as a search for vengeance will soon prove the beginning of an even higher purpose: the quest for the Holy Grail itself.

Subjects: Fiction, History, Grail, Archers, Historical Fiction, Archers -- Fiction

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