Richard Carpenter adapted his scripts for the first series into a Penguin/Puffin book, also titled "Robin of Sherwood", published in 1984. "The King's Fool" comprises chapters 18 to 20.
- At the start, as Robin and his men are searching for the mercenaries, they find the dead bodies of a woodcutter and his family.
- Robin asks the knight if he was hunting alone, and the knight replies he had been joined by comrades-in-arms from the Holy Land, but he lost them.
- After King Richard reveals himself, he speaks to Nasir in Arabic and tells him Lord Saladin was dead and has made his peace with Richard.
- It is explained that King Richard had reached Nottingham two days earlier and demanded its surrender, after which the Sheriff was removed from office.
- It is mentioned that the elderly woman sitting to the right of King Richard at Nottingham Casle is the Queen Mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine.
- When Robin and his men enjoy the King's food, Marion and Nasir are the only ones who remain sober, as they never drink wine.
- Richard's strategy to battle Philip of France, after collecting money in England to accomplish this, is explained.
- After the King orders the Sheriff to get rid of Robin and his followers, the Sheriff proposes to dump their bodies in Sherwood and frame local villagers for their death by planting arrows on them, after which the villagers could also be hunted down.
- In the book, Robin and Marian anticipated Gisburne would come for them in the night and lay straw figures out in the open while they hide in the shadows themselves.
- In the book, Gisburne is run through by Robin's sword rather than shot in the back with an arrow by Marian.
- When Rhiannon's Wheel starts turning, Robin experiences a vision of his father's death at the hand of Robert de Rainault, bringing the end of the book full circle with the beginning.
This episode marks the only appearance of King Richard the Lionheart on the series.