Blurb; 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.
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. 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. By now he is a young man, in love, trained to fight and ready to take his place in the dreaded shield wall. Above all, though, he wishes to recover his father’s land, the enchanting fort of Bebbanburg by the wild northern sea.
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.
My Review; This is one of my friends’ favourite book series’s, so she kindly lent me book one and honestly I thought it wouldn’t be my cup of tea. But I actually really enjoyed it. Historical. War. Ships. Death. Coming of age. The note at the back says it was closely based on true stories with a few fictional characters thrown in. The Danes vs. all of England. A gripping read where we get to see uhtred grow in strength and into a young man with his own family. This surprised me. I liked it. A well-deserved four stars.
Between The Pages Book Club 
You must be logged in to post a comment.