Bernard Cornwell

Staff Picks: The long awaited return of Richard Sharpe to the Napoleonic battlefield, this is a classic adventure story enjoyable even if you haven’t read any of the previous 21 books! Picked by Patrick

Uhtred of Bebbanburg has won back his ancestral home but, threatened from all sides by enemies both old and new, he doesn't have long to enjoy the victory. In Mercia, rebellion is in the air as King Edward tries to seize control. In Wessex, rival parties scramble to settle on the identity of the next king. And across the country invading Norsemen continue their relentless incursion, ever hungry for land. Uhtred - a legendary warrior, admired and sought...

SHARPE'S COMPANY, or Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812. It is a hard winter. For Richard Sharpe it is the worst he can remember. He has lost command to a man who could buy the promotion Sharpe covets. His oldest enemy, the ruthless and indestructible Hakeswill, joins the regiment and he is a man with a mission to ruin Sharpe. SHARPE'S SWORD, or Richard Sharpe and the Salamanca Campaign, June and July 1812. Sharpe is once...

Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of 9th century Northumbria. Orphaned at ten, he is captured and adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the only English kingdom to survive the Danish assault.

Summer 1779: a British force of fewer than 1,000 Scottish infantry were sent to build a garrison in the state of Maine. But Massachusetts was determined to expel the British, and they sent a fleet to 'captivate, kill and destroy' the enemy. Told from both sides of the battle, this story features real figures from history.

With his 'Grail Quest', 'Warlord' and 'Sharpe' series Bernard Cornwell has cemented his position as a virtuoso of historical fiction. 'The Pale Horseman' is a novel of heroic deeds, bloody battles and the struggle to unite Britain in the face of a common enemy.

Thomas of Hookton, a veteran of Crecy and many other battles, is the leader of a mercenary company of bowmen and men-at-arms who ravage the countryside east of Gascony. The Black Prince is assembling an army to fight the French once more, but before Thomas can join, he must fulfil an urgent task.

'Sharpe's Escape' takes place in the summer of 1810, once again in the Peninsular War. The French are mounting their third and most dangerous invasion of Portugal. Captain Richard Sharpe with his company of redcoats and riflemen meets the invaders on the gaunt ridge of Bussaco. But the French are not stopped.

In the last years of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in failing health, and his heir is an untested youth. The Danes, who have failed so many times to conquer Wessex, smell opportunity.