Your Questions

Dear Mr Cornwell

I have enjoyed reading the Last Kingdom series of books and have just finished Warriors of the Storm. Will there be any more books in this series please?

Best wishes

Norman Steel

Dear Mr Cornwell,

Are you visiting England any time soon?

Regards,

Pablo

Hi Bernard,

We'd like to start by saying that my boyfriend and I love your books. (We just finished Uhtred and now we're onto Arthur.) We also are currently watching The Last Kingdom on BBC, and we are greatly disappointed with the way they've portrayed your characters and altered the plot. I know this always happens when books are made into movies or shows, but it seems to us they took far too much license.

I'm not really sure how the process works - I imagine you as the author might not have terribly much creative control over production?

Anyway, this is what we're really getting at - do you have any deals in the works for another network to pick this up and do it properly, say as a book-per-season kind of thing? I feel like this would be a great opportunity for a network other than HBO to give their answer to Game of Thrones (which I haven't found half as entertaining as your books). For whatever our opinion is worth, we think that people would really get into it if they had the opportunity to see the full story and get to know the characters with the depth you've given them in your writing (frankly we don't think BBC did you any favors on that front).

Also for what it's worth, of all the people who've narrated your books on audio, Jonathan Keeble takes the cake, he's great.

Anyway, we're hoping for some good news about another television production for the Saxon Stories but until then we will continue to enjoy your other work.

Thanks so much,

Laura and Mike

Although the Last Kingdom is a brilliant show and overall the characters are extremely well selected (especially Alfred) do you agree that perhaps Uhtred is cast a little too short and perhaps a tad more on the "pretty" side than is appropriate?

Joe Day

 

 

I am sure that I am not alone in my admiration for the literary value of your work in addition to the wonderful storytelling. Are there any passages that you are particularly proud of from a writer’s perspective?

On an unrelated curiosity, what do you think is the likelihood that historians will discover more information about the life of King Alfred? It's a shame that we know so little about the first English King.

Jeff

Mr. Cornwell,

I love reading your books. After re-reading The Empty Throne, I think I found a discrepancy in regards to a portion of the story. When the Lord Uhtred came ashore and met up with King Hywell, it was implied that all Lord Uhtred and his men had were seaxes, no swords and no shields. Later, Finan found two swords out of a pile of swords taken from Rognvald because of lack of swords.. He found Cnut's sword. But, then after being healed with it (via Eadith), he pulled Serpent-Breath out of its scabbard.and struck a boat in triumph and no pain. Before Sihtric brought the boat back. I thought they had no swords on the "pilgrimage". Am I wrong? Love your stories! Keep them coming!

Greg Williams

First, may I say that I've enjoyed every one of your books I've read(the entire Sharpe canon, The Last Kingdom, etc) That said, I found an error in Vagabond(a small one, perhaps), and decided to be a nit-picking intellectual nuisance, and point it out to you.

In your description of the battle between the Scots and the northern English forces, you described a Scot chopping down with a pike.  Sorry, but a pike is a 12-14 foot pole with a spear point on the end.  Its only use is for poking things(and, maybe, being stretched across a road so people will have to stop and pay their toll).\ The weapon you described(a pole with a spike on top, an axe blade on one side and a hook on the other) sounds very  much like a Lochaber axe.  An axe with a spike on top and one on the opposite side would be a halberd.  As far as I know(and I don't pretend to be anything near an expert), the Lochaber axe was used mostly by the Scottish  clansmen, in conjunction with the true claymore(the two-handed sword).

Forgive me if I seem too pedantic, but I've seen authors confuse pikes with halberds before(and even pointed it out to them).

By the way, I've been a member of the Society For Creative Anachronisms for the last 40 years; my persona has been that of a 9th century Norseman.  Uhtred is definitely of interest.

Your Admirer

Michael Grossberg

a/k/a Gardr Gunnarsson

Enjoyed every one of your books,  I live in West Yorkshire , my home village is called Rastrick, do places that end c, ck or k indicate a Viking settlement eg. The Viking name for York ?

In the village we have Round Hill, which looks like the base of a Mott and Bailey structure and further down the village is Castle Hill house, with what looks like man made defensive earthworks, which is now a small golf links.

If you google earth the post code HD6 3SD and look around that area, does it look some kind of bastion for either controlling the Viking inhabitants after the 1066 invasion ?

The village is named in the domesday book, with land given to the Norman, De Totehill (now Toothill Bank) The area of West Yorkshire was Northumbria, and before that Elmet.

Cast your eye over it, it's always intrigued me.

Thank you for your books

Regards,

Colin Barber

I was interested to read of the +ulfberh+t sword. I watched an interesting program on ulfberht swords. It would seem that ice-spite was one of the inferior fakes. Apparently, there is a significant difference in steel quality between the fakes +ulfberh+t and the real thing +ulfberht+.

Kind regards.

David

Hello Mr. Cornwell!

I finished The Last Kingdom and am on to the second book. I am also writing a book about the Vikings and it takes place 874 to the Battle of Edington.

I have a question: do you know anything about Viking duels? Have you written about it in any of your books?

Thanks so much,

Max