friend." Literature Duggan's novels are known for their basis of meticulous historical research. He also wrote popular histories of Ancient Rome and the Middle Ages. Knight with Armour, his first novel, appeared in 1946. He visited practically every place and battlefield described, since he was also an archaeologist, having worked on excavations in Istanbul during the 1930s. Unlike many historical novelists, he does not idealise his subjects. A few characters are noble, some rather nasty, many mixed in their motives. Some of the novels can be seen as funny, in a dry noir style. A recurring theme is the slow moral corruption of a character who begins with an exalted opinion of himself as noble, wise and brave, but gradually compromises himself morally. Most of the stories are told from the viewpoint of the ruling class – sometimes the ruler, sometimes a knight or noble. In English history, his novels show a general approval of the Norman conquest. Reception Duggan's novel Three's Company (1958) was praised by Rex Warner, who stated, "Mr. Duggan has succeeded in making him (Lepidus) a modern character, but he has also firmly placed him in his own age. Three's Company is a most competent piece of work, scholarly, alive, and suggestive." In an introduction to Duggan's novel Count Bohemond (1964), Evelyn Waugh said Duggan's "literary style remained constant. It is as crisp and clear in this posthumous novel as in his first.... There is no groping in Alfred's work. At the age of forty-seven he published his first book. It was lucid and masterly, absolutely free of affectation or ostentation." Books Novels Knight with Armour (1950). The First Crusade, as seen by a rather ordinary knight Conscience of the King (1951). A speculative life of Cerdic, founder of the kingdom of Wessex The Little Emperors (1951). A succession of coups in late Roman Britain The Lady for Ransom (1953). Norman mercenaries from the West serving the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century Leopards and Lilies (1954). A noblewoman seeks her own advantage in the dangerous politics of England under King John and Henry III. God and My Right (1955). The life of St Thomas Becket Winter Quarters (1956). Two Gauls in the time of Julius Caesar join the Roman army and are captured at the Battle of Carrhae, to spend the rest of their lives as mercenaries for the Parthians in a faraway eastern province.