From Publishers WeeklyCornwell's fourth entry in the popular Saxon Tales (following Lords of the North) is a rousing romp through the celebrated ninth-century reign of Alfred the Great. Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a 28-year-old pagan Saxon lord of war, has pledged to serve Alfred by commanding the defensive frontier forts (burhs). Trouble arises when the Norse Viking brothers Sigefrid and Erik Thurgilson capture and occupy London, threatening Alfred's border and his control of the Thames River port. The Christian Alfred directs Uhtred to raise a Wessex army, expel the pagan Thurgilsons and resecure London. Commanding Uhtred is his vain, abusive cousin Ethelred, who is married to Alfred's eldest daughter, Ethelflaed. Plying his swords Serpent-Breath and Wasp-Sting, Uhtred is a stirring, larger-than-life action hero conflicted by ambition, fidelity and thirst for violence. All the major characters are well drawn, and the London battle scenes unfold quickly and vividly. A deft mix of historical details and customs authenticates the saga. And Cornwell drops in a slick twist precipitating the climatic battle to wrest control of London for the Saxons, paving the way for the story to continue. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review‘The characterisation, as ever, is excellent...And one can only admire the little touches that bring the period to life: the bitter weather; the swollen rivers; the soliders gossiping about ale and women...he can also claim to be a true poet of both the horror and the glory of war, showing a feeling for the ways of fighting men which is too often lacking in the politicians who send them into battle.’Sunday TelegraphThis is typical Cornwell, meticulously researched, massive in scope, brilliant in execution’. News of the World‘Sword Song’s as sharply written as all of Cornwell’s historical adventures.’ Bournemouth Daily Echo‘...this will not disappoint Cornwell’s legions of fans.’ Western Daily Press‘...epic drama, rich language and a thoroughly satisfying journey through Saxon history.’ Eastern Daily PressPraise for ‘The Lords of the North’:‘Beautifully crafted story-telling, complete with splendid set-piece battles and relentless derring-do, so gripping that it rarely stops to catch a breath. It demonstrates once again Cornwell’s enormous skill as a historical narrator. He would have graced Alfred’s court entertaining the guests with his stories.’ Daily Mail‘Cornwell takes the spectres of ninth century history and puts flesh back on their bones. Here is Alfred's world restored – impeccably researched and illuminated with the colour and passion of a master storyteller.’Justin Pollard, author of ‘Alfred the Great’Praise for Bernard Cornwell:'Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation.' Daily Mail'Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched.' Observer

IN THE FINAL RECKONING, CHOOSE YOUR SIDE CAREFULLY... The epic conclusion to the globally bestselling historical series, coming October 2020. After years fighting to reclaim his rightful home, Uhtred of Bebbanburg has returned to Northumbria. With his loyal band of warriors and a new woman by his side, his household is secure – yet Uhtred is far from safe. Beyond the walls of his impregnable fortress, a battle for power rages. To the south, King Æthelstan has unified the three kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia – and now eyes a bigger prize. To the north, King Constantine and other Scottish and Irish leaders seek to extend their borders and expand their dominion. Caught in the eye of the storm is Uhtred. Threatened and bribed by all sides, he faces an impossible choice: stay out of the struggle, risking his freedom, or throw himself into the cauldron of war and the most terrible battle Britain has ever experienced. Only fate can decide the outcome. The epic story of how...

The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish Kingdom to the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. Warrior by instinct and Viking by nature, Uhtred, the dispossessed son of Northumbrian lord, has land, a wife and children-and a duty to King Alfred to hold the frontier on the Thames. But a dead man has risen, and new Vikings have invaded the decayed Roman city of London with dreams of conquering Wessex...with Uhtred's help. Suddenly forced to weigh his oath to the king against the dangerous turning side of shifting allegiances and deadly power struggles, Uhtred-Alfred's sharpest sword-must now make the choice that will determine England's future.

The much-awaited third instalment in Bernard Cornwell′s Grail Quest series. In 1347 the English capture Calais and the war with France is suspended by a truce.But for Thomas of Hookton, the hero of Harlequin and Vagabond, there is no end to the fighting. He is pursuing the grail, the most sacred of Christendom′s relics, and is sent to his ancestral homeland, Gascony, to engineer a confrontation with his deadliest enemy, Guy Vexille. Once in the south country, Thomas becomes a raider, leading his archers in savage forays that will draw his enemy to his arrows. But then his fortunes change. Thomas becomes the hunted as his campaign is destroyed by the church. With only one companion, a girl condemned to burn as a heretic, Thomas goes to the valley of Astarac, where he believes the grail was once hidden and might still be concealed. There he plays a deadly game of hide and seek with an overwhelming enemy. Then, just as Thomas succeeds in meeting his enemy face to face, fate intervenes. What had been a landscape of castles, monasteries, vineyards and villages becomes death′s kingdom, and the need for the grail is more urgent than ever.

At the conclusion of Cornwell's best-selling The Last Kingdom  (2005), Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a slain Saxon nobleman raised by Danish warriors, had reluctantly rejoined King Alfred's beleaguered forces in the rapidly dwindling kingdom of Wessex. Although the Danes had already conquered the kingdoms of East Anglia, Northumbria, and Mercia, Alfred, with an able assist from Uhtred, had stalwartly fended off the Viking invasion. Uneasily allied to the cerebral Alfred, the more vigorous Uhtred is plagued by divided loyalties as the Saxons struggle to maintain a toehold against the mighty Viking war machine. Taking refuge in a boggy marshland, the ragtag remnants of the Saxon army desperately attempt to regroup. Two vastly different heroes--Alfred and Uhtred--stand between the Danes and total annihilation of the Saxon culture. Further complicating the matter is the fact that Uhtred faces a moral dilemma when he realizes he must choose between allegiance to the king he has grown to admire and loyalty to Ragnar, his much-loved foster brother. Cornwell, the author of the excellent  Sharpe series, displays his usual flair for providing action-packed martial history populated by a diverse array of realistically drawn characters. A crackerjack adventure tale from a master of the craft.

Bernard Corwell, author of Sharpe's Company, Sharpe's Seige, and Sharpe's Revenge, continues the saga of Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe in this, his final adventure. Just as he comes face-to-face with his estranged wife and her lover at a grand society ball, news comes that the British-Prussian link is under attack. In the Battle of Waterloo, Sharpe once again plays a pivotal role in the outcome of a great British triumph.

This special edition Ebook features exclusive extra content by the author, with an extended Historical Note and two contemporary accounts of the Battle of Poitiers. Go with God and Fight like the Devil.The Hundred Years War rages on and the bloodiest battles are yet to be fought. Across France, towns are closing their gates, the crops are burning and the country stands alert to danger. The English army, victorious at the Battle of Crécy and led by the Black Prince, is invading again and the French are hunting them down.Thomas of Hookton, an English archer known as Le Bâtard, is under orders to seek out the lost sword of St Peter, a weapon said to grant certain victory to whoever possesses her. As the outnumbered English army becomes trapped near the town of Poitiers, Thomas, his men and his sworn enemies meet in an extraordinary confrontation that ignites one of the greatest battles of all time.

In a battery of events that will make a hero out of an illiterate private, a young Richard Sharpe poses as the enemy to bring down a ruthless Indian dictator backed by fearsome French troops. The year is 1799, and Richard Sharpe is just beginning his military career. An inexperienced young private in His Majesty's service, Sharpe becomes part of an expedition to India to push the ruthless Tippoo of Mysore from his throne and drive out his French allies. To penetrate the Tippoo's city and make contact with a Scottish spy being held prisoner there, Sharpe has to pose as a deserter. Success will make him a sergeant, but failure will turn him over to the Tippoo's brutal executioners — or, worse — his man-eating tigers. Picking his way through an exotic and alien world. Sharpe realizes that one slip will mean disaster. And when the furious British assault on the city finally begins, Sharpe must take up arms against his true comrades to preserve his false identity, risking death at their hands in order to avoid detection and thus to foil the Tippoo's well-set trap.

Three classic Richard Sharpe adventures.Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805Ensign Richard Sharpe is on his way home from India. He is sailing with the Royal Navy, who are hunting a formidable French warship, the ‘Revenant’, carrying a secret treaty that may prove lethal to the British.Richard Sharpe and the Expedition to Copenhagen, 1807Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, newly returned to England, is offered a new job: go to Copenhagen, help deliver a bribe, and stop a war. To him, it seems easy. But the bribe is to stop the Danes allowing the French to possess their battle fleet, big enough to replace every warship lost at Trafalgar.Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809Britains’s forces are retreating towards Corunna during a bitter winter, with Napoleon’s victorious armies in pursuit. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and a detachment of Riflemen are cut off from the rest of the army and surrounded.

Bernard Cornwell's epic story of the making of England continues in this eleventh installment in the bestselling Saxon Tales series—"like Game of Thrones, but real" (The Observer)—the basis of the hit Netflix television series The Last Kingdom.His blood is SaxonHis heart is VikingHis battleground is England"Perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today" (Washington Post), Bernard Cornwell has dazzled and entertained readers and critics with his page-turning bestsellers. Of all his protagonists, however, none is as beloved as Uhtred of Bebbanburg.And while Uhtred might have regained his family's fortress, it seems that a peaceful life is not to be – as he is under threat from both an old enemy and a new foe. The old enemy comes from Wessex where a dynastic struggle will determine who will be the next king. And the new foe is Sköll, a Norseman, whose ambition is to be King of Northumbria and who leads a...

In the fourteenth century the English were just beginning to discover their national identity, and one of the strongest elements of this was the overwhelming success in battle of the English bowmen. England′s archers crossed the Channel to lay a country to waste. Thomas of Hookton was one of those archers. When his village is sacked by French raiders, he escapes from his father′s ambition to become a wild youth who delights in the opportunities which war offers - for fighting, for revenge and for friendship. But Thomas is hounded by his conscience. He has made a promise to God to retrieve a relic stolen in the raid from Hookton′s church. The search for the relic leads him into a world where lovers become enemies, enemies become friends and always, somewhere beyond the horizon that is smeared with the smoke of fires set by the rampaging English army, a terrible enemy awaits him. That enemy would harness the power of Christendom′s greatest relic - the grail itself. In this, the first book of a new series, Thomas begins the quest that will lead him through the fields of France, until at last the two armies face each other on a hillside near the village of Crecy.