The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell (HarperCollins, £18.99)
THE blood is up, the sword is out and the fury of battle rages across the land as the war lord Uhtred seeks to save King Alfred’s Wessex from a fresh onslaught of Danes led by the ferocious Harold Bloodhair.
It’s grim, bloody work and Uhtred is the man to do it, but when the warrior has done his job, he is ambushed by jealous courtiers at Alfred’s court and exiled to sell his sword and services where he will, perhaps even to retrieve his boyhood home of Bamburgh and even more.
This is Dark Age history with a killing edge.
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