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Sword of Kings Synopsis
Uhtred of Bebbanburg is a man of his word.
An oath bound him to King Alfred. An oath bound him to AEthelflaed. And now an oath will wrench him away from the ancestral home he fought so hard to regain. For Uhtred has sworn that on King Edward's death, he will kill two men. And now Edward is dying.
A violent attack drives Uhtred south with a small band of warriors, and headlong into the battle for kingship. Plunged into a world of shifting alliances and uncertain loyalties, he will need all his strength and guile to overcome the fiercest warrior of them all.
As two opposing Kings gather their armies, fate drags Uhtred to London, and a struggle for control that must leave one King victorious, and one dead. But fate - as Uhtred has learned to his cost - is inexorable. Wyrd bid ful araed. And Uhtred's destiny is to stand at the heart of the shield wall once again...
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Press Reviews
Bernard Cornwell Press Reviews
Praise for Bernard Cornwell:
'Strong narrative, vigourous action and striking characterisation, Cornwell remains king of the territory he has staked out as his own' SUNDAY TIMES
`Like Game of Thrones, but real' OBSERVER
'Blood, divided loyalties and thundering battles' THE TIMES
'A violent, absorbing historical saga, deeply researched and thoroughly imagined' WASHINGTON POST
`The best battle scenes of any writer I've ever read, past or present. Cornwell really makes history come alive' George R.R. Martin
`Cornwell draws a fascinating picture of England as it might have been before anything like England existed' THE TIMES
`He's called a master storyteller. Really he's cleverer than that' TELEGRAPH
`A reminder of just how good a writer he is' SUNDAY TIMES
`Nobody in the world does this better than Cornwell' Lee Child
Author
About Bernard Cornwell
Born in Essex in 1944 Bernard Cornwell was adopted at the age of six weeks by two members of a strict fundamentalist sect called the Peculiar People. He grew up in a household that forbade alcohol, cigarettes, dances, television, conventional medicine and toy guns. Not surprisingly, he developed a fascination for military adventure. As a teenager he devoured CS Forester’s Hornblower novels and tried to enlist three times. Poor eyesight put paid to his dream, instead he went to university to read theology. On graduating, he became a teacher, then joined BBC’s Nationwide, working his way up the ladder to become head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland, then editor of Thames News. In 1979, his life changed when he fell in love with an American.
"Judy couldn’t live here, so I gave up my job and moved to the US. I couldn’t get a green card, and for 18 months the only thing I could do was write novels." The result was his first book about 19th century hero, Richard Sharpe, Sharpe’s Eagle.
In addition to the hugely successful Sharpe novels, Bernard Cornwell is the author of the Starbuck Chronicles, the Warlord trilogy, the Grail Quest series, the Alfred series and standalone battle books Azincourt and The Fort.
Bernard Cornwell owns houses in Cape Cod and Florida and two boats. Every year he takes two months off from his writing and spends most of his time on his 24 foot Cornish crabber, Royalist.
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