A kind of spin-off novelisation of the 80s HTV show Robin of Sherwood, written by Richard Carpenter, Robin May, and Anthony Horowitz. The book is okay, evidently hastily-written with minimal characterisation or attention to the usual narrative niceties, but has many enjoyable moments. I wouldn’t advise anyone to read it if they haven’t seen the HTV show, indeed it doesn’t add much to the original series save for some occasional well-written passages. Here’s a trailer for the TV show:

It’s one of these 70s/80s TV gems, low budget but astonishingly good, with a psychotic Will Scarlett played by of course Ray Winstone, and an excellent Sheriff of Nottingham. The death of the first and best Robin is well-described in the novelisation:

The men-at-arms were murderously close now, just a few yards short of the first boulders as Robin set his last arrow on the string. The Sheriff was nowhere to be seen – hiding behind his men while they brought down the outlaw. The great bow bent and sprang, sending the arrow flying high over the forest in a salute to all that had been. In the last moments that were left to him, Robin unstrung his bow and broke it on his knee. Then the soldiers charged forward and he was lost from sight as swords flashed down, glinting in the sun.