The latest in the bestselling Alfred series from number one historicalnovelist, Bernard Cornwell. In the last years of the ninth century, KingAlfred of Wessex is in failing health, and his heir is an untested youth.The Danes, who have failed so many times to conquer Wessex, smellopportunity! First comes Harald Bloodhair, a savage warrior leading a Vikinghorde, who is encouraged to cruelty by his woman, Skade. But Alfred stillhas the services of Uhtred, his unwilling warlord, who leads Harald into atrap and, at Farnham in Surrey, inflicts one of the greatest defeats theVikings were ever to suffer. This novel, the fifth in the magnificent seriesof England's history tells of the final assaults on Alfred's Wessex, thatWessex survived to become England is because men like Uhtred defeated anenemy feared throughout Christendom.