Death of Kings - Bernard Cornwell

‘Every day is ordinary until something changes, and that cold Sunday morning had seemed as ordinary as any until the fools tried to kill me.’

Uhtred, the great warrior, is ordered, much against his will, to talk peace with the Vikings. He is sent into a trap.

The men who control the king do not trust Uhtred, the Danes want him dead, and his only ally is thelflaed, Alfred’s daughter, who has been condemned to a nunnery. Uhtred himself has been banished to an impoverished estate in Mercia, and must now watch as the churchmen around the king urge a policy of peace and conversion while the enemies of Wessex grow ever stronger on the border.

The Danes talk peace, but they want war. They want Wessex, the richest Saxon kingdom. Alfred the Great, who has ruled for almost thirty years, is rumoured to be dying, and there are bad omens – ‘seven kings will die’ the sorceress had said to Uhtred, ‘and the women you love’.

When Alfred dies the rivals for his crown will try to destroy each other, leaving Wessex open to the Viking onslaught. The survival of Alfred’s kingdom – and indeed of the English nation – is at stake.

DEATH OF KINGS is an outstanding novel of how England was made and very nearly lost.