The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell

Bernard Cornwell--"the most prolific and successful historical novelist in the world today" (Wall Street Journal)--returns to his Saxon Tales saga with the epic story of divided loyalties, bloody battles, and the struggle to unite Britain.

At the onset of the tenth century, England is in turmoil. Alfred the Great is dead and his son Edward reigns as king. Wessex survives but peace cannot hold: the Danes in the north, led by Viking Cnut Longsword, stand ready to invade and will never rest until the emerald crown is theirs.

Uhtred, once Alfred's great warrior but now out of favor with the new king, must lead a band of outcasts north to recapture his old family home, the impregnable Northumbrian fortress Bebbanburg.

Loyalties will be divided and men will fall as each Saxon kingdom is drawn into the bloodiest battle yet with the Danes--a war that will decide the fate of every king, and the entire English nation.

With The Pagan Lord, New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, "the reigning king of historical fiction" (USA Today), continues his magnificent epic of the making of England during the Middle Ages, vividly bringing to life the uneasy alliances, violent combat, and deadly intrigue that gave birth to the British nation.

Publication Date: January 7, 2014

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Harper

ISBN-10: 0061969702

ISBN-13: 9780061969706

 

 

 

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Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 --- a "war baby," whose father was a Canadian airman and whose mother was in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to the University of London, and after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years.

He began as a researcher on the "Nationwide" program and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons, so Bernard went to the United States, where he was refused a green card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the U.S. government --- for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars --- and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, and still live in the United States --- and he is still writing Sharpe.