Bernard Cornwell

Author Information
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  • Bibliography:
    63 Books (6 Series)
  • First Book:
    April 1981
  • Latest Book:
    December 2024
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About the Author

Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 - a 'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He attended London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the US government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States and he is still writing.

Full Series List in Order

Grail Quest

1 - The Archer's Tale // Harlequin (2000)
2 - Vagabond (Dec-2001)
3 - Heretic (Oct-2003)
4 - 1356 (Jan-2013)

A Richard Sharpe Adventure

1 - Sharpe's Tiger (Jan-1997)
2 - Sharpe's Triumph (Jun-1998)
3 - Sharpe's Fortress (Mar-1999)
4 - Sharpe's Trafalgar (2000)
5 - Sharpe's Prey (Jan-2002)
6 - Sharpe's Rifles (Sep-1988)
7 - Sharpe's Havoc (Apr-2003)
8 - Sharpe's Eagle (Apr-1981)
8 - Sharpe's Escape (Apr-2004)
9 - Sharpe's Gold (Feb-1982)
9 - Sharpe's Fury (Sep-2006)
10 - Sharpe's Battle (Apr-1995)
11 - Sharpe's Company (Jun-1982)
12 - Sharpe's Sword (Jun-1983)
13 - Sharpe's Enemy (Feb-1984)
14 - Sharpe's Honor (Jun-1985)
15 - Sharpe's Regiment (Mar-1986)
16 - Sharpe's Siege (May-1987)
17 - Sharpe's Revenge (May-1989)
18 - Sharpe's Waterloo (Jun-1990)
19 - Sharpe's Devil (Jun-1992)
20 - Sharpe's Assassin (Dec-2021)
21 - Sharpe's Command (Apr-2024)

The Saxon Chronicles

1 - The Last Kingdom (Oct-2004)
2 - The Pale Horseman (Jan-2006)
3 - Lords of the North (Feb-2007)
4 - Sword Song (Jan-2008)
5 - The Burning Land (Jan-2010)
6 - Death of Kings (Jan-2012)
7 - The Pagan Lord (Jan-2014)
8 - The Empty Throne (Jan-2015)
9 - Warriors of the Storm (Jan-2016)
10 - The Flame Bearer (Dec-2016)
11 - War of the Wolf (Oct-2018)
12 - Sword of Kings (Nov-2019)
13 - War Lord (Nov-2020)

Starbuck Chronicles

1 - Rebel (Feb-1993)
2 - Copperhead (Jan-1994)
3 - Battle Flag (Feb-1995)
4 - The Bloody Ground (Jan-1996)

Thrillers

1 - Wildtrack (Aug-1988)
2 - Sea Lord (Jun-1989)
3 - Crackdown (Aug-1990)
4 - Stormchild (Oct-1991)
5 - Scoundrel (Aug-1992)

The Warlord Chronicles

1 - The Winter King (May-1995)
2 - Enemy of God (May-1996)
3 - Excalibur (Oct-1997)

Book List in Order: 63 titles

  • Sharpe's Eagle

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 8

    RICHARD SHARPE FEARLESS SOLDIER, RUTH LESS ENEMY, AND PASSIONATE LOVER Captain Richard Sharpe--bold, professional, and ruthless--is leading his battle-hardened veterans against Napoleon at Talavera in the bloodiest Peninsula battle yet. Sharpe has...

  • Sharpe's Gold

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 9

    WELLINGTON MUST CALL ON THE ONLY MAN BRAVE AND RUTHLESS ENOUGH TO WIN AT ANY COST CAPTAIN RICHARD SHARPE A year after the victory at Talavera, Wellington's army, outnumbered and bankrupt, is on the verge of collapse. Its only hope lies in a cache ...

  • Sharpe's Company

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 11

    MEET RICHARD SHARPE FEARLESS SOLDIER, RUTHLESS ENEMY, AND PASSIONATE LOVER The year is 1812, and Richard Sharpe has one mission: to thwart Napoleon's dream of empire. Sharpe and the fighting men of the Light Company must gain control of two fortre...

  • Sharpe's Sword

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 12

    FRANCE'S MOST RUTHLESS ASSASSIN FAILED TO KILL CAPTAIN RICHARD SHARPE ON THE FIRST TRY. WILL HE GET A SECOND CHANCE? Colonel Levroux is killing Britain's most valuable spies, and it's up to Richard Sharpe to stop him. Thrust into the unfamiliar wo...

  • Sharpe's Enemy

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 13

    ONLY ONE MAN STANDS BETWEEN NAPOLEON'S ARMY AND A BRITISH DEFEAT -- MAJOR RICHARD SHARPE A band of renegades led by Sharpe's vicious mortal enemy, Obadiah Hakeswill, holds a group of British and French women hostage in a strategic mountain pass. O...

  • Sharpe's Honor

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 14

    STOPPING WELLINGTON'S FORCES IN SPAIN AND DESTROYING MAJOR RICHARD SHARPE IS A PERFECT PLOT FOR NAPOLEON An unfinished duel, a midnight murder, and the treachery of a beautiful prostitute lead to Sharpe's imprisonment. Condemned to die as an assas...

  • Sharpe's Regiment

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 15

    A CORRUPT POLITICAL ENEMY IS DETERMINED TO DISBAND THE SOUTH ESSEX REGIMENT AND TO DESTROY MAJOR RICHARD SHARPE Shape returns to England and discovers an illegal recruiting ring that sells soldiers like cattle to other divisions. The ringleaders k...

  • Sharpe's Siege

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 16

    TRAPPED WITH HIS BACK TO THE SEA, MAJOR RICHARD SHARPE AND A HANDFUL OF MEN MUST STAND AGAINST A BATTALION OF FRENCH TROOPS Sharpe's mission seemed simple: capture a small unguarded French coastal fort, cripple Napoleon's supply lines, and retreat...

  • Redcoat

    A CITY AT WAR In 1777 Philadelphia was the cultural center of an emerging nation. It was there that the course of history would be determined. The British took possession of the city without firing a single shot; but they quickly discovered that h...



  • Wildtrack

    Thrillers - 1

    Nick Sandman's spine was shattered by a bullet in the Falklands. He has no money and no prospects, only a dream of sailing far away from his troubles on his boat, Sycorax. But Sycorax is as crippled as he is, and to make her seaworthy again, Nick mus...

  • Sharpe's Rifles

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 6

    WHEN SHARPE RISES FROM THE RANKS TO TAKE COMMAND, HE FINDS HIMSELF WITH AN UNEXPECTED ALLY IN THE WAR AGAINST NAPOLEON It's 1809, and the powerful French juggernaut is sweeping across Spain. Lieutenant Richard Sharpe is newly in command of the dem...

  • Sharpe's Revenge

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 17

    WHEN HIS HONOR AND REPUTATION ARE AT STAKE, SHARPE SEEKS REVENGE AT ANY COST It is 1814, and the defeat of Napoleon seems imminent--if the well-protected city of Toulouse can be conquered. For Richard Sharpe, the battle turns out to be one of the ...

  • Sea Lord

    Thrillers - 2

    Johnny Rossendale has spent the last four years on the seas, away from the titled family he despises. But now he must turn his sailing cutter, the Sunflower, around and sail to Devon, where his mother lies dying. When Johnny makes landfall, though, h...

  • Killer's Wake

    Despite the lure of the sea, the heir to an ancient earldom reluctantly returns to his British home to protect valuable paintings belonging to his family--a treasure that someone is willing to kill for...

  • Sharpe's Waterloo

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 18

    JUNE 1815: THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, THE PRINCE OF ORANGE, AND NAPOLEON WILL MEET ON THE BATTLEFIELD AND DECIDE THE FATE OF EUROPE With the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is marching toward Brussels. The British and their alli...

  • Crackdown

    Thrillers - 3

    Drug pirates stalk their victims in the treacherous waters of the Bahamas, then return to their fortress island of Murder Cay like primal sharks after a kill. Then comes skipper Nicholas Breakspear with the son and daughter of a U.S. senator. What sh...

  • Stormchild

    Thrillers - 4

    The last time Tim Blackburn saw his headstrong daughter Nicole, she was sailing out of his English Channel boatyard with the oddly charismatic leader of a group of environmental activists--some might say terrorists--called Genesis. Now, alone after t...

  • Sharpe's Devil

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 19

    AN HONORED VETERAN OF THE NAPOLEONIC WARS. LT COLONEL RICHARD SHARPE IS DRAWN INTO A DEADLY BATTLE, BOTH O LAND AND ON THE HIGH SEAS 1820--Richard Sharpe, a peaceful farmer since Waterloo, comes out of retirement to undertake a perilous mission. H...

  • Scoundrel

    Thrillers - 5

    Bostonian Paul Shanahan is many things: part-time marine surveyor, smuggler, gunrunner, suspected CIA agent. A full-time scoundrel with ties to nothing and no one--except to an ex-lover who died years before in a hail of bullets--he has agreed to tra...



  • Rebel

    Starbuck Chronicles - 1

    A POWERFUL AND EVOCATIVE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR'S FIRST BATTLE AND THE MEN WHO FOUGHT IT When Richmond landowner Washington Faulconer snatches young Nate Starbuck from the grip of a Yankee-hating mob, Nate is both grateful and awed by his idealist...

  • Copperhead

    Starbuck Chronicles - 2

    It is the summer of 1862 and the northern army is threatening to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital. Captain Nathaniel Starbuck, born in Boston but a Confederate hero at Manassas, is again in the thick of Civil War action. Bloodied but vict...

  • Battle Flag

    Starbuck Chronicles - 3

    THE BATTLE FOR MANASSAS IS A FIGHT TO THE DEATH, IN THE THIRD VOLUME OF THIS ACCLAIMED AND POWERFUL CIVIL WAR SERIES Distinguishing himself at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Confederate Captain Nate Starbuck's career is jeopardized through the susp...

  • Sharpe's Battle

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 10

    Spain 1811 As Napoleon threatens to crush Britain on the battlefield, Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe leads a ragtag army to exact personal revenge against a French general known for his acts of terror. Sharpe's Battle takes Richard Sharpe and his company...

  • The Winter King

    The Warlord Chronicles - 1

    It takes a remarkable writer to make an old story as fresh and compelling as the first time we heard it. With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent The Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell unveils the story he was born to write: a bril...

  • The Bloody Ground

    Starbuck Chronicles - 4

    LEE'S ARMY INVADES THE NORTH FOR THE WAR'S BLOODIEST BATTLE, IN THE FOURTH VOLUME OF THIS ROUSING AND SPLENDID CIVIL WAR SERIES It is only weeks after Second Manassas in September 1862, and in General Lee's army the northern renegade Nathaniel Sta...

  • Enemy of God

    The Warlord Chronicles - 2

    The Warrior King has brought peace to Britain -- but for how long? Following a hard-fought victory, Arthur appears to have at last won the unity of the British kingdoms. He turns his attention to face the invading Saxons, while Merlin begins a que...

  • Sharpe's Tiger

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 1

    RICHARD SHARPE AND THE SIEGE OF SERINGAPATAM, 1799 The year is 1799, and Richard Sharpe is just beginning his military career. An inexperienced young private in His Majesty's service, Sharpe becomes part of an expedition to India to push the ruthl...

  • Excalibur

    The Warlord Chronicles - 3

    In The Winter King and Enemy of God Bernard Cornwell demonstrated his astonishing ability to make the oft-told legend of King Arthur fresh and new for our time. Now, in this riveting final volume of The Warlord Chronicles, Cornwell tells the unforget...

  • Sharpe's Triumph

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 2

    RICHARD SHARPE AND THE BATTLE OF ASSAYE, SEPTEMBER 1803 It is India, 1803. In the four years since he earned his sergeant's stripes, young Richard Sharpe has led a relatively peaceful existence. But Sharpe's reverie ends when he barely survives a ...



  • Sharpe's Fortress

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 3

    RICHARD SHARPE AND THE SIEGE OF GAWILGHUR, DECEMBER 1803 Richard Sharpe, now an officer in Wellesley's army, faces a battle of a different kind--this time among his own ranks. Uncomfortable with his newfound authority and unwilling colleagues, Sha...

  • The Archer's Tale // Harlequin

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy
    Grail Quest - 1

    A brutal raid on the quiet coastal English village of Hookton in 1342 leaves but one survivor: a young archer named Thomas. On this terrible dawn, his purpose becomes clear: to recover a stolen sacred relic and pursue to the ends of the earth the mur...

  • Sharpe's Trafalgar

    • / Action Adventure
    • Buy Buy
    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 4

    Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805 The year is 1805, and the Calliope, with Richard Sharpe aboard, is captured by a formidable French warship, the Revenant, which has been terrorizing British nautical traffic in the India...

  • Stonehenge

    Discover a time of ritual and sacrifice .. . A land steeped in blood and glory ... A family of brothers whose deadly rivalries and glorious ambitions will forever mark the world....

  • Vagabond

    Grail Quest - 2

    In a time of treachery and brutality, a courageous warrior will face the fires of battle as he journeys on the ultimate quest: the search for the Holy Grail 1347. Five years have passed since Thomas of Hookton began his quest for justice . . . and...

  • Sharpe's Prey

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 5

    RICHARD SHARPE AND THE EXPEDITION TO COPENHAGEN, 1807 The year is 1807, and Richard Sharpe is back in England, where his career seems to have come to a dead end, despite his heroics in Britain's recent victory at Trafalgar. Loveless, destitute, an...

  • Gallows Thief

    In the cobbled streets outside Newgate Prison, the common and desperate of London gather regularly to enjoy the spectacle of human necks broken at the end of a hangman's rope. For Rider Sandman, newly returned from the Napoleonic Wars, it is not grim...

  • Sharpe's Skirmish

    It is the summer of 1812 and Richard Sharpe, newly recovered from the wound he received in the fighting at Salamanca, is given an easy duty; to guard a Commissary Officer posted to an obscure Spanish fort where there are some captured French muskets ...

  • Sharpe's Havoc

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 7

    HISTORY COMES DANGEROUSLY ALIVE RICHARD SHARPE AND THE CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN PORTUGAL, SPRING 1809 Lieutenant Richard Sharpe finds himself fighting the ruthless armies of Napoleon Bonaparte as they try to bring the whole of the Iberian Peninsula...

  • Heretic

    Grail Quest - 3

    Still young but already a seasoned veteran of King Edward's army, Thomas of Hookton possesses a fearlessness and an uncanny prowess with the longbow, talents that have made him a natural leader. Now, at the head of a small but able band of soldiers, ...



  • Sharpe's Escape

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 8

    Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign, 1810 Only two obstacles stand between Napoleon's mighty army and its seemingly certain conquest of Portugal: a land wasted and stripped of food at Wellington's orders ... and Captain Richard Sharpe. But peril...

  • The Last Kingdom

    The Saxon Chronicles - 1

    In the middle years of the ninth century, the fierce Danes stormed onto British soil, hungry for spoils and conquest. Kingdom after kingdom fell to the ruthless invaders until but one realm remained. And suddenly the fate of all England--and the cour...

  • The Pale Horseman

    The Saxon Chronicles - 2

    The last unvanquished piece of England, Wessex is eyed hungrily by the fearsome Viking conquerors. A dispossessed young nobleman, Uhtred is tied to the imperiled land by birth and marriage but was raised by the Danish invaders--and he questions where...

  • Sharpe's Fury

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 9

    The year is 1811. With the British army penned into a small part of Portugal, and all of Spain except for the coastal city of Cadiz fallen to the invader, the French appear to have won their war. Raised in the gutters of London and taught to fight, C...

  • Lords of the North

    The Saxon Chronicles - 3

    The year is 878. Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, has helped the Saxons of Wessex defeat the invading Danes. Now, finally free of his allegiance to the victorious, ungrateful King Alfred, he is heading home to rescue his stepsiste...

  • Sword Song

    The Saxon Chronicles - 4

    The year is 885, and England is at peace, divided between the Danish kingdom to the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. Warrior by instinct and Viking by nature, Uhtred, the dispossessed son of a Northumbrian lord, has land, a wife an...

  • Azincourt

  • Agincourt

    Young Nicholas Hook is dogged by a cursed past--haunted by what he has failed to do and banished for what he has done. A wanted man in England, he is driven to fight as a mercenary archer in France, where he finds two things he can love: his instinct...

  • The Burning Land

    The Saxon Chronicles - 5

    In a clash of heroes, the kingdom is born. At the end of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in ill health; his heir, an untested youth. His enemy, the Danes, having failed to conquer Wessex, now see their chance for victory. Led by the sw...

  • The Fort

    While the major fighting of the war moves to the south in the summer of 1779, a British force of fewer than a thousand Scottish infantry, backed by three sloops-of-war, sails to the desolate and fog-bound coast of New England. Establishing a garrison...



  • Death of Kings

    The Saxon Chronicles - 6

    The fate of a new nation rests in the hands of a reluctant warrior in this thrilling sixth volume in the acclaimed New York Times bestselling Saxon Tales series. As the ninth century wanes, Alfred the Great lies dying, his dream of a unified Engla...

  • 1356

    Grail Quest - 4

    A thrilling tale of peril and conquest at the Battle of Poitiers. September 1356. All over France, towns are closing their gates. Crops are burning, and through-out the countryside people are on the alert for danger. The English army -- led by the...

  • The Pagan Lord

    The Saxon Chronicles - 7

    New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell returns to his epic Saxon Tales saga with The Pagan Lord, a dramatic story of divided loyalties, bloody battles, and the struggle to unite Britain. At the onset of the tenth century, England is in...

  • The Empty Throne

    The Saxon Chronicles - 8

    This eighth entry in New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell's epic Saxon Tales series brings to life the harrowing and turbulent tale of a nation torn apart by sectarian and religious strife, a political struggle dominated by dynastic riv...

  • Warriors of the Storm

    The Saxon Chronicles - 9

    The ninth installment of Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, “like Game of Thrones, but real” (The Observer, London) -- the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit BBC America television series....

  • The Flame Bearer

    The Saxon Chronicles - 10

    Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbria’s Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, and Mercia’s Saxon Queen Aethelflaed have agreed a truce. And so England’s greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his tr...

  • Fools and Mortals

    New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell makes a dramatic departure with this enthralling, action-packed standalone novel that tells the story of the first production of A Midsummer Night's Dream -- as related by William Shakespeare’s est...

  • War of the Wolf

    The Saxon Chronicles - 11

    His blood is Saxon His heart is Viking His battleground is England "Perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today" (Washington Post), Bernard Cornwell has dazzled and entertained readers and critics with his page-turni...

  • Sword of Kings

    The Saxon Chronicles - 12

    The twelfth installment of Bernard Cornwell’s New York Times bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England It is a time of political turmoil once more as the fading King Edward begins to lose control over his successors a...

  • War Lord

    The Saxon Chronicles - 13

    The final installment in Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling Saxon Tales series, chronicling the epic story of the making of England -- the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit Netflix series. THE FINAL BATTLE AWAITS… The epic conclusion to the...

  • Sharpe's Assassin

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 20

    SHARPE IS BACK. If any man can do the impossible it's Richard Sharpe . . . Lieutenant-Colonel Sharpe is a man with a reputation. Born in the gutter, raised a foundling, he joined the army twenty-one years ago, and it's been his home ev...

  • Uhtred's Feast

    In this engaging social history New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, “the most prolific and successful historical novelist in the world today” (Wall Street Journal), completes his epic Last Kingdom series with this companion book f...

  • Sharpe's Command

    A Richard Sharpe Adventure - 21

    New York Times bestselling author Bernard Cornwell returns to the early years of the nineteenth century, capturing the bravery, battles, and bloodshed of Britain’s peninsular wars with this epic tale featuring his iconic hero Richard Sharpe.Outside...

  • Sharpe's Storm

    Sharpe’s Storm has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher....

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Bernard Cornwell has published 63 books.

The next book by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Storm, will be published in December 2024.

The first book by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Eagle, was published in April 1981.

Yes. Bernard Cornwell has 6 series.
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