Your Questions

Q

Hi Bernard,

I am spending a week working on the isle of Portland and when the isle is certainly a eerie place when the lights go out and the wind picks up. I was just wondering if there is any truth to it's use in the warlord trilogy, or if it's just a bit of artistic licence?

Thanks,

Sean

A

It wasn’t ‘a bit of artistic licence’, it was twenty truckloads of it. It was all made up!


Q

Hi Mr. Cornwell.

Here's a question that recently occurred to me: In the afterword to some of your Uhtred novels, you state that England stood in the balance during the Viking Invasions, and if Alfred had lost, it would have been Daneland and we in America would be speaking some form of Danish.  But a little more than a century later, William the Conqueror took over England and did away with the Saxon way of things.  Yet England remained, it did not become "Normanland" are we are not speaking some form of Norman-French today.  Why is it that the Danish/Norse conquest would have done away with England and the the Norman Conquest did not?

Alan Kempner

A

True, of course, but William’s conquest only replaced the thin upper layer of the English aristocracy, it wasn’t a folk movement of tribes and families.  The Danes came in huge numbers . . . not enough, as it turned out, but the two invasions were of quite different character.


Q

Hi -

I'm a huge fan.  Have you considered using a specialty house like subterranean press to produced an illustrated signed limited edition?  I suspect I would buy all of your books again...

Noel Symons

 

A

I haven’t . . . though that did happen some time ago with a small press. I can’t remember the details, sorry.

 


Q

Hi there, big fan of your work especially the last kingdom series. Lords of the North might go down as my favorite of the 10 so far.

Question for you, would you happen to know If the Norse/Danes/swedes used to sell each other for slaves as well as those they raided? For example the petty kingdoms in Norway, during those times would they have had slaves made up of other kingdoms within Norway?

Thanks!!

Hussein

A

I don’t know the answer to that, sorry. I suspect (but only suspect) that they might have used captured enemies from their own people as slaves? But I imagine that was rare and foreigners were much easier to enslave. I’m guessing, because I don’t know the answer.


Q

Hello Bernard,

I love your Last Kingdom series and have read them all multiple times.  My question is about Sigtryggr.  When we first meet him in Death of Kings, he is called both Sigtryggr Ivarson and Olafson and his father in that book and Warriors of the Storm is called Jarl Ivar and Jarl Olaf.  Is this an eBook typo or an editorial mishap?  Either way, I will continue to read this series over and over and cannot wait for Book 11...even though Book 10 was just published in the US!

 

Thank you!

Cara Millstein

A

Sounds like I messed  up . . . . .


Q

Dear Mr. Bernard Cornwell

For a good period of time I have been wondering what Mr. (Sweet)  William has been up to; now that he mustered out to the colony of Canada. Is it possible for you to fill me in. Is he OK? That is my main concern.

Sincerely;

Laurence Brill

A

Oh, I think he is OK....maybe one day we'll know for sure...


Q

I have just finished reading the first ten volumes, for the second or third time, I know maybe slightly excessive, however I do like to keep the story flowing. Any idea when volume 11 maybe released in UK?? Indeed to plan when I restart volume 1.

Regards & very best wishes from a Northumbrian resident trying to come to terms with local history.

If it is going to be a long wait I will just have to start the Sharpe series again.

Once again many thanks for a superb reading experience.

Barry Liddell

A

No idea...it hasn't been written yet!


Q

Hi,

Wikipedia tells me that 1356 belongs in the Grail Quest series, but it's not listed there...

Licensing The Last Kingdom to Netflix was a good step -- they are doing a good job with it.  I have enjoyed the first year of the series, and I am now picking up the Grail Quest series.

Alan

A

But 1356  is not part of The Grail Quest series; it just happens to share a character, Thomas of Hookton.


Q

Which of the book series were included in the BBC series first season?  Do you anticipate a season 2?

Clay Humphries

A

The first two books of the series - The Last Kingdom and The Pale Horseman.

Yes!  There will be a season two!


Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

I just finished re-reading Agincourt.  I loved it the first time but picked up on so much more this time around.  One thing I noticed was that in the final battle scenes, I believe you changed POV 18 times between 5 characters. Changing POV can be tricky so I wondered if you might share your thoughts on how to successfully change POV within a scene and/or how you charted/decided to switch viewpoints as you were writing.

RJ

A

I honestly have no idea! It’s instinctive, which I know isn’t helpful! I’m sorry to return such an unhelpful answer, but truly there’s no design and no rule!