Uhtred’s out, Sharpe is in as author Bernard Cornwell releases new book Sword of Kings
Bernard Cornwell reveals he is retiring his favourite hero, Uhtred from The Last Kingdom, but another will be back after a 15-year absence from the bloodstained blockbusters that made his name.
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“Maybe we’re in such despair over the present — when you look at what the assholes are doing in Washington and London are you surprised?”
Bernard Cornwell has no sympathy for fools in positions of power, in real life or fiction.
Today his target is clear, as he ponders the human need for escapism — a longing that has driven millions to lose themselves in his novels featuring hard-as-nails heroes, loveable rogues, strong women and more than a few vile and frequently incompetent leaders.
That army of characters, combined with a spymaster’s degree in intricate plotting and an unmistakeable light touch, long ago won for Cornwell the throne of historical fiction — the fastest-growing fiction genre of the millennium Down Under.
Its popularity — and the corresponding appetite for “real” history — make sense to Cornwell.
“I think history is an escape,” he says. “There’s lots to learn from it, but it is an escape. Novels should be an escape.”
Cornwell, who sees himself as “an entertainer”, has been helping people escape since 1980, when he wrote his first novel, Sharpe’s Eagle; the now 75-year-old has since penned 60-plus books and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
His best-known works are two series featuring a pair of tough guys with semisoft centres living, loving and fighting — always fighting — through world-changing events 900 years apart: Saxon/Viking warrior Uthred of the Last Kingdom and Napoleonic Wars soldier Richard Sharpe. Both have appeared on screen in epic TV adaptations.
Cornwell has also set single novels and miniseries in the Middle Ages, Bronze Age Britain, Shakespearean London plus America’s War of Independence and Civil War. There are also contemporary nautical thrillers and a one-off nonfiction deep-dive into the Battle of Waterloo.
His favourite story is the Winter King trilogy — a compelling and convincing imagining of the reality behind King Arthur, set in a fractured and desperate Dark Ages Britain.
Yet when it comes to which characters he likes best, there’s little contest.
“Well the easy answer is I like whoever I am writing about at the time,” he begins, then pauses before revealing his real favourites.
“Probably only because I haven’t written Sharpe for God knows how many years, I’d probably say Uhtred; but I am very, very fond of Sharpe and I’d like to write one more.”
The dour Rifleman from the wrong side of the tracks, portrayed by Sean Bean on TV, delivered Cornwell a debut hit and 23 further stories. But his creator thinks the fondness may only go one way.
“I get the feeling Sharpe wouldn’t like me much,” he admits.
Asked who he’d have a drink with, Cornwell first suggests one of the women (“I was always very, very fond of Lady Grace in Sharpe’s Trafalgar. The sad thing was she had to die…”) then decides it would be Uthred or Sharpe’s jolly giant Irish offsider, Patrick Harper.
“That would be fun.”
WHEN GOOD BOOKS DON’T GO BAD: How Uhtred worked on screen
The British-born author says he doesn’t see much of himself in his sword-wielding Alpha heroes. The only time he deliberately inserted himself into a novel (Sharpe’s Fury) was as a joke that went unnoticed.
“There’s an inky scribe who drinks too much and smokes too much and is generally horrible and I give him the initials BC as a clue,” he chuckles. “Nobody got it at all.”
In truth, however, Cornwell’s own life story is extraordinary.
Born in London as the illegitimate “war baby” of a British woman and a Canadian soldier in 1944, Cornwell was adopted into a family of puritanical, restrictive, religious fundamentalists called the Peculiar People. Eventually he rebelled against all they stood for and left home.
After that escape came university; a stint as a teacher; a Sharpe-esque career progression at the BBC that began with some bluffing and ended as a head of current affairs; a chance elevator encounter with a blonde called Judy who would become his wife (or “management” as Cornwell fondly puts it); and a love-driven move Stateside where, without a Green Card for regular work, he had to make alternative earning arrangements — and a new chapter, as novelist, began.
Later still Cornwell tracked down his birth parents on both sides of the Atlantic in two happy reunions.
These experiences have undoubtedly influenced his storytelling.
“It certainly gave me a detestation of puritans,” he says, as anyone who has read the Last Kingdom, Winter King or Azincourt will recognise.
“Being brought up in a rabid fundamentalist evangelical family basically gave me a wishlist. If you are told ‘thou shalt not’ and the things you are not allowed to do included blondes, wine, tobacco, dancing, films, theatre television … the list was endless, and I think I’ve ticked off almost all of it.”
One unexpected gift of his Peculiar upbringing is an immense catalogue of castigation for his novels.
“Whenever I need some daft preacher to slag off Uhtred the verse comes instantly to mind, I do have fun with that.”
Cornwell is known for his accuracy when it comes to historical detail — and as a voracious consumer of history, he does not find research a chore — although he willingly modifies outdated language to make stories flow.
Thousands of history books cram his study, where he works accompanied by his Cavalier King Charles spaniel (“I always said I wanted a proper dog, but management said she wanted this — and he’s a wonderful dog really.”)
Surprisingly, his biggest challenge is establishing the plot — usually making it up as he goes along rather than mapping it out in advance.
“I sweat over plots,” he confesses. “I only wish plots would come to me. Ninety-five per cent of the work is discovering what the devil the plot is.”
Which brings us to his next one. With 12th Uhtred adventure Sword of Kings hitting shelves now, Cornwell says he has one final hurrah for the veteran war lord then, sadly for fans, it will be the end of that well-trodden road.
“I think it probably has to be.”
But not for Cornwell, who hopes to visit Australia next year, and his prolific pen.
At the start of our chat he mentioned another Sharpe; and at the end I ask if he is planning new adventures altogether.
“I’m 75 now for God’s sake. Do I really want to start another series? Of course I do! And a few stand-alones. I’d like to do a follow-up to Gallows Thief; I liked that book.”
Bring them on, Bernard. As soon as you like.
Wyrd bið ful āræd.
Sword of Kings, published by HarperCollins Australia, is out now in all good bookshops.
DIFFERENT WORLDS
You couldn’t get much further from Sharpe and Uhtred than the characters in our Book of the Month, The Model Wife by Tricia Stringer — though it is gripping in a very different way.
Readers can get it for 30 per cent at Booktopia by using the code BCBT19. And as always, please tell us which books are providing your Great Escape at the Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.
