The Lords of the North - Bernard Cornwell

It must be sad being Bernard Cornwell. For the past 20 odd years you have been able to write about one character and see them progress through their life. For Cornwell, Sharpe must have been like an old friend that just happened to produce vast quantities of cash whenever a book was released. Through these 20 years Cornwell has produced several other series of books in the vain hope of recapturing the magic of a long running set of books. Unfortunately, none have gone longer than four books (Starbuck) and most become trilogies. I believed this trilogy fate was the most likely outcome for Cornwell’s latest books about Uhtred, a Dark Ages’ warrior who is fighting to ...

Historical fiction must be amongst the best to write. Why do I say that? Well, you start off with the historical fact, add in a few fictional characters, take some artistic license around the story and, voila, you have a decent book. In actuality, I’m sure it’s must trickier than that and the proof of the pudding is in the eating but I do know that I’ve come to enjoy historical fiction nearly as much as any other genre that I’ve traditionally liked. Perhaps one of the best examples of this “off-the-top-of-me-’ead” thesis would be Bernard Cornwell’s “The Lords of the North” from his Alfred the Great series which I read whilst holidaying in Wales recently. The ...