SKP:  I have to confess that I began to read War Lord with some degree of trepidation.  I have loved your Saxon series about Uhtred of Bebbanburg and I was not sure I was ready to see his story end.  I was also nervous that you might kill off a character I’d come to care about, for while we know that Uhtred himself survived, I could not be sure my other favorites would be as lucky.  I need not have worried.  You have done right by Uhtred—spectacularly so–bringing his last book to a highly satisfactory conclusion.   Writers know how challenging it is to end a series beloved by fans.  Fictional graveyards are filled with the bones of books and television shows that failed to meet the expectations of readers and viewers; we need only think of the controversy swirling around the finales of Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Seinfeld and Lost.  (For the record, I only had problems with the ending of Lost.)   So, I am happy to be able to assure readers that War Lord will not disappoint.  It contains all of the elements we’ve come to value in an Uhtred novel—plot twists, suspense, lots of gallows humor, and a compelling depiction of Uhtred’s world.  War Lord is a very fitting way to bring Uhtred’s history to a close, leaving him to live on in the memories of millions of readers.

SKP:  Welcome, Bernard.  Writing novels about people who actually lived has its drawbacks.  We never have to stare at a blank computer screen, wondering what comes next, for we always have a map at hand.  The trouble is that often those maps take us places we may not want to go.  I’d often wondered if you’d known from the outset how Uhtred’s saga would end, and I finally had my answer when I interviewed you last year for Sword of Kings; you confided that you’d always intended to conclude the series after the battle of Brunanburh.   So, I assume you began by deciding which historical events and battles you wanted or needed to dramatize.  Was that difficult?  Did you expect to be able to tell Uhtred’s story in thirteen books?  You were not ever tempted to deviate from the Game Plan and give Uhtred some extra adventures? Maybe a fourteenth book?

BC: I was never tempted by an extra book!  Uhtred was already too old and it was time to bring his story to a conclusion and I had always known that would be the Battle of Brunanburh. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that on the morning of the battle there was no such thing as the kingdom of England, and as night fell that day there was. So poor Uhtred had to live though the messy period of England’s making. That was a very bloody period, so I wanted him present at most of the recorded battles – he had to be at Ethandun which was the low point of the struggle between Saxons and Northmen. I’m not saying I’m done with Uhtred for all time; just as with the Sharpe series there are a few gaps in his tale and I might (might) be tempted one day to fill in a gap, but I suspect his story is told now.

SKP:   Obviously, you found Uhtred to be good company.  Did you have any other characters who became favorites, too?   Or conversely, were there any characters who were not fun to write about?  I think most writers enjoy creating villains; were there any in your Rogues’ Gallery who have stood out, evil enough to unsettle both Uhtred and you?    My vote would go to Skade, whose cruelties lingered in my memory long after I first encountered her in The Burning Land.  I also found Anlaf, the Irish would-be king, to be rather chilling when he first made his appearance in War Lord. 

BC: I’m so glad you picked out Skade, she was chilling, as was the sorcerer Skoll. Waormund in Sword of Kings was a good villain for me – though none of Uhtred’s foes ever matched Obadiah Hakeswill in the Sharpe books. He was a wonderful villain and I foolishly killed him off. As for Uhtred’s foes I must guiltily confess that my favourite villains were always Uhtred’s ecclesiastical enemies, chief among them Bishop Wulfheard. I know it’s all too easy to accuse senior churchmen of various sins, but it is fun! And I always enjoyed Uhtred’s confrontations with them. I did try to balance them with admirable priests – I became curiously fond of Oda, a Danish immigrant who became Archbishop of Canterbury in the years after Brunanburh and I deliberately did not give him too many sins or depict him as Uhtred’s enemy.

SKP:  Do you have certain scenes in your books that resonate with you in a special way?  To use a sports term, when you knew you were “in the zone” while you were writing that particular scene?  In War Lord, one of my own favorite scenes was the arrival of Ealdred at Bebbanburg, so sure that he would easily take command of the castle, only to find that things did not go as he’d expected.  I suspect you had fun writing that scene? 

BC: I did have fun writing that scene! And yes, I do feel myself ‘in the zone’ with some passages and it’s always a huge pleasure when that happens – those scenes almost feel as if they write themselves, and I’m sure you’ve often felt the same!  Uhtred always got more life for me when he was confronted by slavery, perhaps because he was enslaved himself once, and those scenes always put him (and me) ‘in the zone’. Finishing his life with Benedetta was a reaction to those scenes. And it’s maybe because I’m an avid sailor that I usually find a book comes to life when I send Uhtred to sea and he patently loves being afloat and usually doesn’t want to sight land, so he and I have a good time until the plot demands he goes ashore.

SKP:  I know this is rather like asking a mother which child she loves best, Suzie or Johnny.  But I’ll ask it anyway; do you have a personal favorite among the thirteen books in Uhtred’s series?    Any particular battles that stand out in your memory?   For me, it was the chapters in Lords of the North, involving the mysterious Red Ship.  They had everything a reader could want—great suspense, high drama, vivid writing, and the introduction of Finan.  And of course, those scenes were well seasoned with dark humor.  Uhtred and Finan discussing the fate of a vicious slave trader they both had good reason to hate:  Finan: “Want to know how he died?”  Uhtred: “Slowly?”   Finan: “And loudly.” 

BC: I don’t think I have a favourite. The sad truth is that I hardly remember what happened in the previous books, though I’m glad you reminded me of Lords of the North because I did love the whole pursuit by the red ship. I wanted to call that book The Red Ship, but my publishers didn’t like the title. I also confess a fondness for The Empty Throne because it was my farewell to King Alfred who was a vital character in all the previous books and he was always interesting to write. One of my biggest regrets as that I never described Finan’s killing of the slave-trader, which is a problem because I was writing in the first person and Uhtred couldn’t be there, but I’m certain it was very slow and very loud!

SKP:  You’ve spent decades researching the Saxon era, writing about historical figures not as well known to your readers as medieval kings are.  Were there any surprises during those years of research?  Did you uncover any information that caused you to change your initial judgment about one of these kings?

BC:   I suppose the biggest surprise was my conclusions about Alfred. There are a few statues to him in England all of them show a man as burly as a linebacker in a coat of mail and carrying a sword. So he’s seen as a warrior king, and he did indeed fight many battles, but in truth he was a chronically sick man (maybe Crohn’s disease?) whose chief interests were the church, literature and education.  Now there’s no reason why a highly intelligent and cultured man cannot be a fearsome warrior too, but the persistence of his well-attested health problems strongly suggest that he would not be at home in a shield wall. He was undoubtedly a great king, and it was his vision of England that drove the history of Britain for a generation after his death, but I suspect his greatness lay in his intelligence, not in his ability to wield a sword. I thought David Dawson’s depiction of him in the Netflix series The Last Kingdom was spot-on; stern. unbending, super-smart, but also frail. I also took some liberties with Æthelstan, Alfred’s grandson, who eventually becomes the first king of a united England. History records that he never married, which is unusual in a king because of the desire to leave an heir, and also that he liked to decorate his hair with golden ringlets, and on that small evidence I decided he might have been gay; a choice that hasn’t pleased all my readers, but I was happy with it.

SKP:  Is there any chance you might reward your readers with another Uhtred book?  Richard Sharpe has already blazed that path for you; while we first meet Richard Sharpe during the Peninsular Campaign in Spain, you later wrote several “prequels” about Sharpe’s earlier adventures  in India.  I am sure you could come up with an “unknown” episode in Uhtred’s past that deserved dramatizing.  Just a thought.

BC: There is indeed a chance! Right now it isn’t on my radar, but maybe in a year or two I’ll have a sudden desire to go back to Uhtred. As you well know the characters live in your head and never go away. I walk my dog and hear Uhtred having conversations, so if I do return to him I’m fairly sure he’ll be ready to fight again.

SKP:  I am especially eager to get the answer to one particular question and I am sure your readers are, too.  Do you have anything on the horizon now that you’ve given Uhtred the send-off he deserved?

BC: Your question made me smile, because of the previous question!  It’s been almost twenty years since I ‘finished’ the Sharpe series – twenty one books – but I have long promised myself to write at least one more adventure for Richard Sharpe, so right now the poor man is in Paris, after Waterloo, surrounded by enemies and totally uncertain of what he should do. I suspect he will survive, but how? I have no idea. But It is fun to be back in his grumpy company and I suspect that I will miss Uhtred enough to give him another outing one day!

SKP:  Thank you for agreeing to do this interview and for giving readers around the world so much pleasure with your books.  I admit I felt some sadness after finishing War Lord, knowing I’d miss this lovable rogue, a man who could be courageous, reckless, insightful, stubborn, sardonic, generous, vengeful, and playful—sometimes all in the course of a single day.  But I cheered up when I realized this would be the perfect time to go back to the beginning, to re-read The Last Kingdom and then all of the other books covering Uhtred’s highly entertaining life as an eye-witness to the birth of “Englaland.”

BC:  And thank you, Sharon! Your books are a constant inspiration and joy!!

That’s it!!

Bernard

Signing out, too.   All good wishes, everyone.  Stay safe in these scary times and I hope you all have the best holidays possible in this wretched year.  2021 cannot come quickly enough!

December 21, 2020