However, Cornwell has stated that it will not be about Thomas of Hookton from The Grail Quest or any of his relatives.The Last Kingdom Season 2 – Ragnar’s Revenge The protagonist is an archer who participates in the Battle of Agincourt, another devastating defeat suffered by the French in the Hundred Years War. In June 2006, Cornwell was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's 80th Birthday Honours List.Ĭornwell's latest work, Azincourt, was released in the UK in October 2008. Bernard cornwell last kingdom series series#The result was Sharpe’s Rifles, published in 1987, and a series of Sharpe television films staring Sean Bean.Ī series of contemporary thrillers with sailing as a background and common themes followed: Wildtrack published in 1988, Sea Lord (aka Killer's Wake) in 1989, Crackdown in 1990, Stormchild in 1991, and Scoundrel, a political thriller, in 1992. They also requested that the story feature a large role for Spanish characters to secure co-funding from Spain. The producers asked him to write a prequel to give them a starting point to the series. (Cornwell's strict Protestant upbringing informed the background of A Crowning Mercy, which took place during the English Civil War.) In 1987, he also published Redcoat, an American Revolutionary War novel set in Philadelphia during its 1777 occupation by the British.Īfter publishing eight books in his ongoing Sharpe series, Cornwell was approached by a production company interested in adapting them for television. These were A Crowning Mercy, published in 1983, Fallen Angels in 1984, and Coat of Arms (aka The Aristocrats) in 1986. He went on to tell the story of Badajoz in his third Sharpe novel, Sharpe's Company, published in 1982.Ĭornwell and wife Judy co-wrote a series of novels, published under the pseudonym "Susannah Kells". Sharpe's Eagle was picked up by a publisher, and Cornwell got a three-book deal. These were Sharpe's Eagle and Sharpe's Gold, both published in 1981. He named his chief protagonist Richard Sharpe, a rifleman involved in most major battles of the Peninsular War.Ĭornwell wanted to start the series with the Siege of Badajoz but decided instead to start with a couple of "warm-up" novels. through writing, Cornwell decided to write such a series. Motivated by the need to support himself in the U.S. Forester, chronicling the adventures of fictional British naval officer Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars, and was surprised to find there were no such novels following Lord Wellington's campaign on land. Unable to get a green card, he started writing novels, as this did not require a work permit.Īs a child, Cornwell loved the novels of C.S. He relocated to the United States in 1980 after marrying an American. He then joined Thames Television as editor of Thames News. He then joined BBC's Nationwide and was promoted to become head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland. He attempted to enlist in the British armed services at least three times but was rejected on the grounds of myopia. After he left them, he changed his name to his birth mother's maiden name, Cornwell.Ĭornwell was sent away to Monkton Combe School, attended the University of London, and after graduating, worked as a teacher. He was adopted and brought up in Essex by the Wiggins family, who were members of the Peculiar People, a strict Protestant sect who banned frivolity of all kinds and even medicine. His father was a Canadian airman, and his mother, who was English, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. This thrilling adventure-based on existing records of Bernard Cornwell’s ancestors-depicts a time when law and order were ripped violently apart by a pagan assault on Christian England, an assault that came very close to destroying England.Ĭornwell was born in London in 1944. Above all, though, he wishes to recover his father’s land, the enchanting fort of Bebbanburg by the wild northern sea. By now he is a young man, in love, trained to fight and ready to take his place in the dreaded shield wall. He certainly has no love for Alfred, whom he considers a pious weakling and no match for Viking savagery, yet when Alfred unexpectedly defeats the Danes and the Danes themselves turn on Uhtred, he is finally forced to choose sides. The story is seen through the eyes of Uhtred, a dispossessed nobleman, who is captured as a child by the Danes and then raised by them so that, by the time the Northmen begin their assault on Wessex (Alfred’s kingdom and the last territory in English hands) Uhtred almost thinks of himself as a Dane. This is the story of the making of England in the 9th and 10th centuries, the years in which King Alfred the Great, his son and grandson defeated the Danish Vikings who had invaded and occupied three of England’s four kingdoms.
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