Bernard Cornwell is the author of the acclaimed Richard Sharpe series, set during the Napoleonic Wars; the Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles, about American Civil War; the Warlord Trilogy, about Arthurian England; and, most recently, Stonehenge 2000 B.C. Mr. Cornwell lives with his wife on Cape Cod. In this the fourth in the series of books about the Saxon Chronicles, Uhtred our hero from the previous books, a dispossessed son of a Northumbrian Lord now has a wife and two children and has done very well for himself. Despite is connections with the Vikings and his constant bickering with Alfred, Uhtred has been made Governor of London. It is his job to hold the city while Alfred, when he is not praying or at other religious devotions will build fortifications and maintain his push into Mercia . . . The book is about a time when England is at peace albeit a tenuous one. It is 855 and there is still the Danish kingdom in the north and the Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the south. The Vikings still hold dreams of conquering the South and they believe that with Uhtred's help they can achieve that goal. The author is a master of this type of novel and his knowledge of this period of English history and his descriptions of battle scenes is second to none.