The Last Kingdom

The Last Kingdom
Bernard Cornwell
Harper Collins
500 pages $18.95

Master historical novelist Bernard Cornwell’s massive legion of fans won’t be disappointed by the latest series to come from his prolific pen.

The Last Kingdom is the first of a series of books on Alfred the Great, the king who withstood the Viking armies to create the foundations of the kingdom which has survived to today.

As usual, Cornwell has created a flawed but feisty protagonist, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a young Anglo-Saxon warrior, with the story told from his perspective. Uhtred is the heir to to the earldom of Bebbanburgh, now known as Bamburgh, in northern England, after his older brother and his father are killed by Viking raiders. The raiders, led by the merciless brothers Ubba and Ivar the Boneless, destroy the Kingdom of Northumbria in a battle at York where Uhtred is captured and made a slave of a Viking chieftain, Ragnar.

Cornwell’s depiction of 9th century England is meticulous, especially the battle scenes where the horror and savagery of the battles of that era come alive.

If you haven’t read Bernard Cornwell yet, then try The Last Kingdom – it could well whet your appetite for more of his writing.

– David Sibley

.