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Author

Bernard Cornwell

1944

57 fiction

Bernard Cornwell is one of the most commercially important names in historical fiction, known for fast-moving military novels built around war, loyalty, survival and national identity.

Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 and was adopted by a strict religious family in Essex. He studied history at university before working for the BBC in television news and current affairs. After moving to the United States, he turned to fiction and published Sharpe’s Eagle in 1981, introducing the soldier Richard Sharpe and beginning one of the best-known series in modern historical fiction.

Cornwell’s novels range from post-Roman and Anglo-Saxon Britain to the Hundred Years’ War, Elizabethan England, the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War. His major series include the Sharpe novels, the Saxon Stories beginning with The Last Kingdom, the Arthurian Warlord Chronicles and the Grail Quest. His fiction is particularly associated with detailed battle scenes, the practical experience of soldiers and the political and religious conflicts surrounding warfare, with historical notes often distinguishing documented events from invention.

Where to Start with Bernard Cornwell

New to Bernard Cornwell? Start with The Last Kingdom for Viking and Anglo-Saxon England, Sharpe’s Tiger to follow Richard Sharpe’s career from the beginning, or The Winter King for Cornwell’s reimagining of Arthurian Britain. Each begins a separate series, so there is no need to read Cornwell’s books as one continuous sequence.

Periods and events

Alfred the Great and Wessex871–899 CE American Civil War1861–1865 CE Anglo-Saxon Englandc. 476–1066 CE Arthurian BritainLegendary setting, conventionally c. 5th–6th centuries CE Battle of Agincourt1415 CE Battle of Assaye1803 Battle of Crécy1346 CE Battle of Poitiers1356 CE Battle of Trafalgar1805-10-21 Battle of Waterloo1815-06-18 Black Death1347–1351 CE Construction of Stonehenge3000–1600 BCE Danelaw865–954 CE Early Medieval Rheged and Northumbria476–700 First Battle of Bull Run21 July 1861 First English Civil War1642–1646 CE Georgian Crime and the Bloody Code1714–1837 CE Georgian London1714–1837 CE Great Heathen Army865–878 CE Hundred Years’ War in France1337–1453 CE Liberation of Spain & Invasion of France1813–1814 CE Medieval Heresy and Inquisitionc. 1100–1500 CE Peninsular War1807–1814 CE Philadelphia Campaign1777–1778 CE Regency Era1811–1820 CE Reign of Terror1793–1794 CE Royal Navy in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars1793–1815 CE Siege of Badajoz1812-03-16–1812-04-06 Siege of Calais1346–1347 Torres Vedras / Defence of Portugal1810–1811 CE Viking Age793–1066 CE Waterloo Campaign1815-06 Wellington’s Offensive in Spain1812 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Bernard Cornwell (6 series)

The Last Kingdom in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 13 books 4.4(571,494)

The Last Kingdom series follows Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a Saxon nobleman raised by Danes, through the Viking wars and the creation of a united English kingdom. Beginning with the Great Heathen Army’s destruction of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the novels trace Alfred the Great’s recovery of Wessex and the…

The Warlord Chronicles in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 3 books 4.4(152,490)

The Warlord Chronicles are narrated by Derfel Cadarn, an ageing monk recalling his years as one of Arthur’s warriors in post-Roman Britain. After Uther’s death, Arthur returns to protect the child king Mordred and tries to unite rival British kingdoms against Saxon invasion. Derfel follows him through civil…

Starbuck Chronicles in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 4 books 4.4(10,027)

The Starbuck Chronicles follow Nathaniel Starbuck, the son of a prominent Boston abolitionist preacher, after chance and personal loyalty draw him into Confederate service at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Serving first in the Faulconer Legion, Starbuck must prove himself among soldiers who distrust his Northern…

Sharpe in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 26 books 4.3(358,248)

The Sharpe series follows Richard Sharpe from service as a private soldier in India to command in the British Army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The novels place him at the Siege of Seringapatam, Battle of Assaye, Siege of Gawilghur, Battle of Trafalgar, British attack on Copenhagen,…

The Grail Quest in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 4 books 4.3(82,836)

The Grail Quest follows Thomas of Hookton, an English archer whose search for the truth about his family becomes entangled with the opening decades of the Hundred Years’ War. The novels move through the capture of La Roche-Derrien, the assault on Caen, the Battle of Crécy, Neville’s Cross,…

Crowning Mercy in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 2 books 4.3(7,136)

The Crowning Mercy novels follow the Lazender family through two periods of upheaval in European history. A Crowning Mercy is set amid the religious and political violence of the English Civil War, when a young woman’s inheritance draws her into a contest involving family loyalty, faith and royalist…

Historical fiction

Standalone historical fiction by Bernard Cornwell (5 books)

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