# Bernard Cornwell bibliography

Bernard Cornwell's career started in 1981 with Sharpe's Eagle. He has been a prolific historical novelist since then, having published more than 60 novels.

## Novel series
### The Sharpe stories

Cornwell's best known books feature the adventures of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier during the Napoleonic Wars.
The first 11 books of the Sharpe series (beginning in chronological order with Sharpe's Rifles and ending with Sharpe's Waterloo, published in the US as Waterloo) detail Sharpe's adventures in various Peninsular War campaigns over the course of 6–7 years. Subsequently, Cornwell wrote a prequel quintet – Sharpe's Tiger, Sharpe's Triumph, Sharpe's Fortress, Sharpe's Trafalgar and Sharpe's Prey – depicting Sharpe's adventures under Wellington's command in India, including his hard-won promotion to the officer corps, his return to Britain and his arrival in the 95th Rifles, and a sequel, Sharpe's Devil, set six years after the end of the wars.
He also wrote Sharpe's Battle, a novel "inserted" into his previous continuity, taking place during the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro. It has been asserted [unattributed] that Cornwell was initially dubious about the casting of Sean Bean for the television adaptations. However, Cornwell effectively scotches this assertion in an interview with the "CompleatSeanBean" website. Indeed, Cornwell states in the same interview that he "was utterly delighted that it was to be Sean Bean". Cornwell also dedicated Sharpe's Battle to Sean Bean, and has admitted that he subtly changed the writing of the character to align with Bean's portrayal. Since 2003, he has written further "missing adventures" set during the "classic" Peninsular War era.
The following is the correct 'historical' order, although they are all standalone stories:
| # | Title | Publisher | Publication date |
| 1 | Sharpe's Tiger Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Seringapatam, 1799 | Harper Collins | 1997 |
| The first of Richard Sharpe's Indian adventures, pitting him against the Tippoo Sultan in the siege of Seringapatam, 1799. ||||
| 2 | Sharpe's Triumph Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Assaye, September 1803 | Harper Collins | 1998 |
| Sharpe, now a sergeant, finds himself alongside Sir Arthur Wellesley at the terrifying Battle of Assaye. ||||
| 3 | Sharpe's Fortress Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Gawilghur, December 1803 | Harper Collins | 1998 |
| Sharpe's first story as an officer takes him to the daunting fort of Gawilghur. This is also the last of his Indian adventures. ||||
| 4 | Sharpe's Trafalgar Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 | Harper Collins | 2000 |
| Sharpe has to go home from India, and he would have left in 1805 and Cape Trafalgar lies on his way home, so why should he not be there at the right time? ||||
| 5 | Sharpe's Prey Richard Sharpe and the Expedition to Copenhagen, 1807 | Harper Collins | 2001 |
| This tells the tale of one of the most obscure campaigns of the whole of the Napoleonic wars. The Danes had a huge merchant fleet, second only in size to Great Britain's, and to protect it they possessed a formidable navy. But Denmark was a very small country and when, in 1807, the French decide they will invade Denmark and take the fleet for themselves, Britain has to act swiftly. Swiftly, but not particularly justly. ||||
| 6 | Sharpe's Rifles Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Galicia, January 1809 | Harper Collins | 1988 |
| The beginning of the Peninsular War (the battles between 1808 and 1814 to expel the French from Portugal and Spain). The Peninsular Campaign occupies most of the Sharpe series and this book begins during the infamous retreat to Corunna. Sharpe and a group of the 95th Rifles become separated from the army and are forced to navigate french occupied territory. ||||
| 7 | Sharpe's Havoc Richard Sharpe and the French Invasion of Portugal, Spring 1809 | Harper Collins | 2003 |
| Sharpe's Havoc is set during the French invasion of Portugal in 1809 and Sir Arthur Wellesley's devastating counter-attack. ||||
| 8 | Sharpe's Eagle Richard Sharpe and the Talavera Campaign, July 1809 | Harper Collins | 1981 |
| It tells the tale of the battle of Talavera. ||||
| 9 | Sharpe's Gold Richard Sharpe and the Destruction of Almeida, August 1810 | Harper Collins | 1981 |
| Sharpe is assigned to steal some Spanish gold needed to construct the Lines of Torres Vedras but falls foul of a corrupt Spanish partisan and ends up in the besieged fort of Almeida. ||||
| 10 | Sharpe's Escape Richard Sharpe and the Bussaco Campaign 1811 | Harper Collins | 2004 |
| It is the late summer of 1810 and the French mount their third and most threatening invasion of Portugal. Captain Richard Sharpe, with his company of redcoats and riflemen, meets the invaders on the gaunt ridge of Bussaco where, despite a stunning victory, the French are not stopped. ||||
| 11 | Sharpe's Fury Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Barrosa, March 1811 | Harper Collins | 2006 |
| Sharpe's Fury is based on the real events of the winter of 1811 that led to the extraordinary victory of Barossa. ||||
| 12 | Sharpe's Battle Richard Sharpe and the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro, May 1811 | Harper Collins | 1995 |
| The ghastly tale of the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, a bloody struggle on the Portuguese frontier which deteriorated into a gutter fight in the narrow alleys of a small village. ||||
| 13 | Sharpe's Company Richard Sharpe and the Siege of Badajoz, January to April 1812 | Harper Collins | 1982 |
| Tells the story of the horrifying assault on Badajoz in 1812. The British were in a foul mood, they had been given a hard time by the garrison and suspected that the city's Spanish inhabitants were French sympathisers, so when they got inside they went berserk. ||||
| 14 | Sharpe's Command Richard Sharpe and the Bridge at Almaraz, May 1812 | Harper Collins | 2023 |
| Spain, 1812. Richard Sharpe, the most brilliant – but the most wayward – soldier in the British army, finds himself faced with an impossible task. Two French armies march towards each other. If they meet, the British are lost. And only Sharpe – with just his cunning, his courage and a small band of rogues to rely on – stands in their way...'. ||||
| 15 | Sharpe's Sword Richard Sharpe and the Salamanca Campaign, June and July 1812 | Harper Collins | 1983 |
| In which Sharpe carries his sword (a 1796 pattern Heavy Cavalry sword, an ill-balanced butcher's blade) to the extraordinary battle outside Salamanca where, to quote an enemy General, Wellington 'destroyed forty thousand Frenchmen in forty minutes'. ||||
| 16 | Sharpe's Skirmish Richard Sharpe and the defence of the Tormes, August 1812 | Sharpe Appreciation Society | 2002 |
| (Short Story) 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 to repair. But unknown to the British, the French are planning a raid and Sharpe is in for a fight! ||||
| 17 | Sharpe's Enemy Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas 1812 | Harper Collins | 1984 |
| By 1812 a lot of men had deserted from the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese armies and some of them, too many of them, had banded together in the border mountains where they were led by a renegade Frenchman nicknamed Pot-au-Feu. They formed a semi-military group of bandits and their enemies all agreed on one thing – they had to be crushed. Send for Sharpe. ||||
| 18 | Sharpe's Honour Richard Sharpe and the Vitoria Campaign, February to June 1813 | Harper Collins | 1985 |
| Pierre Ducos, the French super-agent, tries to end Sharpe's life and the series. ||||
| 19 | Sharpe's Regiment Richard Sharpe and the Invasion of France, June to November 1813 | Harper Collins | 1986 |
| Sharpe is sent home to raise soldiers for his regiment, the South Essex, and once in England he runs into an old enemy – Sir Henry Simmerson, once a Colonel of the South Essex and now, what else, a taxman. ||||
| 20 | Sharpe's Christmas Two short stories, 1813 | Sharpe Appreciation Society | 2003 |
| Sharpe's Christmas contains two short stories, 'Sharpe's Christmas' and 'Sharpe's Ransom'. 'Sharpe's Christmas' is set in 1813, towards the end of the Peninsular War and falls after Sharpe's Regiment. 'Sharpe's Ransom' comes after Sharpe's Waterloo and is set in peacetime. ||||
| 21 | Sharpe's Storm Richard Sharpe and the Winter Campaign, 1814 | Harper Collins | 21 October 2025 |
| War against Napoleon rages across Europe. As Britain prepares to invade France for the first time, the formidable Richard Sharpe and his men brace themselves for a cold, hard winter. Before them, across flooded rivers and fortified bridges, lies the fiercest French army they have ever encountered. There is only one way forward for Wellington's army, and it will be bloody in the toughest winter yet. ||||
| 22 | Sharpe's Siege Richard Sharpe and the Winter Campaign, 1814 | Harper Collins | 1987 |
| Sharpe finds himself stranded, surrounded and with only one very unlikely ally – Captain Cornelius Killick from Marblehead, Massachusetts. ||||
| 23 | Sharpe's Revenge Richard Sharpe and the Peace of 1814 | Harper Collins | 1989 |
| This takes place between the end of the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign – and Sharpe pursues Ducos to Italy, though not before he's fought in the climactic battle at Toulouse which is Wellington's last victory in the Peninsular War. ||||
| 24 | Sharpe's Waterloo Richard Sharpe and the Waterloo Campaign, 15 to 18 June 1815, US Title: Waterloo | Harper Collins | 1990 |
| The story of the battle – and Sharpe's part in it. ||||
| 25 | Sharpe's Assassin Richard Sharpe and the Occupation of Paris, 1815 | Harper Collins | 2021 |
| Sharpe helps the Duke of Wellington root out a group of fanatical post-war revolutionaries in Paris and has to face an assassin bent on killing him. ||||
| 26 | Sharpe's Ransom (short story, 181?, appears in Sharpe's Christmas) | Sharpe Appreciation Society | 2003 |
| Sharpe's peaceful life in France is disrupted when an old associate of Ducos, convinced Sharpe has Napoleon's treasure, takes his family hostage and Sharpe has to convince the local villagers to help him. ||||
| 27 | Sharpe's Devil Richard Sharpe and the Emperor, 1820–1821 | Harper Collins | 1992 |
| Sharpe, at last, meets Napoleon. ||||

### The Starbuck Chronicles

A tetralogy set during the American Civil War. The title character, Nathaniel Starbuck, is a Northerner who has decided to fight for the South in a Virginian regiment, the Faulconer Legion. The last novel to date in the series has been The Bloody Ground, taking place during the Antietam Campaign. Cornwell has said that he plans to write more Starbuck novels, but has not done so yet. On his website Cornwell has recently stated that he is 'thinking' about Starbuck again.
| # | Title | Publisher | Date |
| 1 | Rebel | Harper Collins | 1993 |
| Nathaniel Starbuck stumbles into the Confederate army and finds himself at the first Bull Run. ||||
| 2 | Copperhead | Harper Collins | 1994 |
| Takes Nate Starbuck from Ball's Bluff to the bloody campaign in the peninsula, where the unregarded Robert Lee assumes command of the rebel army. ||||
| 3 | Battle Flag | Harper Collins | 1995 |
| Starbuck goes back to Bull Run for the second battle. ||||
| 4 | The Bloody Ground | Harper Collins | 1996 |
| The horrors of Antietam. ||||

### The Warlord Chronicles

A trilogy depicting Cornwell's historical re-creation of Arthurian Britain. The series posits that Post-Roman Britain was a difficult time for the native Britons, being threatened by invasion from the Anglo-Saxons in the East and raids from the Irish in the West. At the same time, they suffered internal power struggles between their petty kingdoms and friction between the old Druidic religion and newly arrived Christianity.
| # | Title | Publisher | Date |
| 1 | The Winter King | Penguin Group | 1995 |
| After the death of Uther, High King of Britain, the country falls into chaos. Uther's heir is a child, Mordred, and Arthur, his uncle, is named one of the boy's guardians. Arthur has to fight other British kingdoms and the dreadful "Sais" – the Saxons – who are invading Britain. ||||
| 2 | Enemy of God | Penguin Group | 1996 |
| At the end of The Winter King Arthur fought the battle that forces unity on the warring British kingdoms and now he sets out to face the real enemy – the Saxons. ||||
| 3 | Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur | Penguin Group | 1997 |
| In Excalibur we follow Arthur and Derfel to the battle of Mount Badon and incredible victory. It not only throws the Saxons back, but reunites Arthur and Guinevere. He might hope now to be left alone, to have a time of peace after gaining a great victory, but new enemies arise to destroy all he has achieved. ||||

### The Grail Quest novels

A series that deals with a mid-14th century search for the Holy Grail during the Hundred Years' War. An English archer, Thomas of Hookton, becomes drawn into the quest by the actions of a mercenary soldier called "The Harlequin," who murders Thomas's family in his own obsessive search for the Grail. Cornwell was planning at one point to write more books about the main character Thomas of Hookton and said that shortly after finishing Heretic he had "... started another Thomas of Hookton book, then stopped it – mainly because I felt that his story ended in Heretic and I was just trying to get too much from him. Which doesn't mean I won't pick the idea up again sometime in the future."
| # | Title | Publisher | Date |
| 1 | Harlequin US: The Archer's Tale | Harper Collins | 2000 |
| The bastard son of a priest, Thomas leaves his native Dorset, seeking revenge after French raiders destroy his village and kill his father. He becomes a mercenary archer, fighting with the English in France. He participates in the Battle of Crécy in 1346 at the beginning stages of what would become known as the Hundred Years' War. He comes to discover that his father was not merely a simple priest, but a French count hiding from his heretical family, and that family is rumoured to have once possessed the Holy Grail. He is skeptical, but powerful people will go to any lengths to find it. ||||
| 2 | Vagabond | Harper Collins | 2002 |
| Thomas of Hookton has been sent back to England to pursue his father's mysterious legacy which hints that the Holy Grail might exist and gets tangled with the Scottish invasion of 1347. He survives that only to discover that various powerful folk in France are pursuing the same quest, a complication that takes Thomas back to Brittany and the fighting about La Roche-Derrien. ||||
| 3 | Heretic | Harper Collins | 2003 |
| Thomas of Hookton travels south into Gascony and to a final confrontation with his cousin, Guy Vexille. The novel begins with the fall of Calais in 1347, and most of the events occur in the subsequent truce, but for Thomas and his companions there can be no truce, only a vicious small war which ends with them being besieged, not just by enemies intent on finding the grail, but by the Black Death. ||||
| 4 | 1356 | Harper Collins | 2012 |
| Thomas of Hookton leads a company of mercenary archers who ravage the countryside of Gascony. Hookton must complete a crucial task before joining the Black Prince's army to fight at the Battle of Poitiers (1356). ||||

### The Saxon Stories

Cornwell's latest series focuses on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, England during the 9th-century reign of Alfred the Great, his fierce opposition to the Danes and his determination to unite England as one country.
| # | Title | Publisher | Date |
| 1 | The Last Kingdom | Harper Collins | 2004 |
| Uhtred is an English boy, born into the aristocracy of 9th century Northumbria, but orphaned at ten, adopted by a Dane and taught the Viking ways. Yet Uhtred's fate is indissolubly bound up with Alfred, King of Wessex, who rules over the last English kingdom when the Danes have overrun Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. ||||
| 2 | The Pale Horseman | Harper Collins | 2005 |
| Describes the fateful year in which the Danes capture Alfred's kingdom and drive him as a fugitive into the marshes of Athelney. It seems that Wessex, and England, are destroyed, but Alfred is determined to make one desperate gamble that might save his kingdom. ||||
| 3 | The Lords of the North | Harper Collins | 2006 |
| Uhtred, having helped Alfred secure Wessex as an independent Saxon kingdom, returns north in an attempt to find his stepsister. Instead he discovers chaos, civil war and treachery in Northumbria. He takes the side of Guthred, once a slave and now a man who would be king, and in return expects Guthred's help in capturing Dunholm, the lair of the dark Viking lord, Kjartan. ||||
| 4 | Sword Song | Harper Collins | 2007 |
| Wessex, Alfred's kingdom, has survived the great Viking assaults and now, with Uhtred as a leader, the West Saxon forces begin the campaigns of conquest that will end with a new kingdom called England. ||||
| 5 | The Burning Land | Harper Collins | 2009 |
| Tells of the final assaults on Alfred's Wessex. ||||
| 6 | Death of Kings | Harper Collins | 2011 |
| Tells of the years which followed the death of Alfred the Great as two men struggle to inherit the crown of Wessex. Uhtred has to contend with betrayal, treachery and the largest army the Danes have yet assembled to conquer Wessex, all brought to a climax in a winter battle fought in the fens of East Anglia. ||||
| 7 | The Pagan Lord | Harper Collins | 26 September 2013 |
| The years after King Alfred’s death are peaceful: the Danes rule in northern Britain, the Saxons hold the south. But for a warrior, a time of restless peace is the hardest challenge. Too often, it allows the cautious and the timid to dominate. ||||
| 8 | The Empty Throne | Harper Collins | 23 October 2014 |
| The forces of Wessex and Mercia have united against the Danes, but instability and the threat of Viking raids still hang heavy over Britain’s kingdoms. For Aethelred, Lord of the Mercians, is dying, leaving no heir and the stage is set for rivals to fight for the throne. ||||
| 9 | Warriors of the Storm | Harper Collins | 8 October 2015 |
| The Northmen invade from Ireland, led by a fierce Viking warrior, Ragnall Iverson. He must face defender Uhtred, fighting to defend lands ruled by King Edward and his sister Aethelflaed. ||||
| 10 | The Flame Bearer | Harper Collins | 6 October 2016 |
| 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 traitorous uncle stole from him so many years ago and which his scheming cousin still occupies. ||||
| 11 | War of the Wolf | Harper Collins | 4 October 2018 |
| Uhtred has been summoned to attend a Witan at Tamweorthin (Tamworth). He obeys the summons even though he knows one of his bitterest enemies, Ealdorman Aethelhelm, will try to have him killed. ||||
| 12 | Sword of Kings | Harper Collins | 3 October 2019 |
| Off Bebbanburg fishermen and their boats are disappearing. As their lord, Uhtred has a responsibility to deal with the issue, so he sets sail and sets a trap. ||||
| 13 | War Lord | Harper Collins | 15 October 2020 |
| On 5 March 2020 Cornwell announced on his Facebook page that the 13th novel will be titled War Lord and will be the final book in the series. Northumbria, under a weak king, is threatened on all sides. Uhtred is forced to choose who to support. ||||

### Thrillers

Cornwell's thrillers are modern mysteries, all with sailing themes. He is a traditional sailor and enjoys sailing his Cornish Crabber by the name of Royalist. His thorough knowledge of sailing and popular skills with writing combine in great novels for the nautically obsessed. According to Cornwell's website, there may be no additions to the series: "I enjoyed writing the thrillers, but suspect I am happier writing historical novels. I'm always delighted when people want more of the sailing books, but I'm not planning on writing any more, at least not now – but who knows? perhaps when I retire."
| Title | Publisher | Date |
| Wildtrack | Penguin Group | 1988 |
| A crippled veteran of the Falklands War sails into the north Atlantic to discover whether a famous television presenter is a murderer. |||
| Sea Lord US: Killer's Wake | Penguin Group | 1989 |
| An eccentric and reluctant aristocrat just wants to be left alone to be a sea-gypsy, but a theft from his ancestral home hauls him back to Britain and mayhem. |||
| Crackdown | Penguin Group | 1990 |
| A convalescent cruise in the Bahamas turns murderous with cocaine. |||
| Stormchild | Penguin Group | 1991 |
| Can our hero save the world from the environmentalists? Someone has to. |||
| Scoundrel | Penguin Group | 1992 |
| A man goes home to Cape Cod to escape a world of European treachery and his involvement with the Provisional IRA. Others have different plans for him. |||

### Other standalone novels

| Title | Publisher | Date |
| Redcoat | Michael Joseph Ltd. | 1987 |
| Redcoat is the story of the Valley Forge winter during the American Revolution – told from the redcoat's point of view. |||
| Stonehenge | Harper Collins | 1999 |
| A story of love, rivalry, treachery and a great mysterious temple set in the year 2000 BC. |||
| Gallows Thief | Harper Collins | 2001 |
| Gallows Thief is a detective story, set in Regency London, a time when there were no detectives as such. There was a very busy gallows, however. This was a period when the English and Welsh gallows were at their busiest and, very occasionally, the government appointed an 'Investigator' to look into a conviction. |||
| Azincourt US: Agincourt | Harper Collins | 2008 |
| Azincourt is the tale of Nicholas Hook, an archer, who begins the novel by joining the garrison of Soissons, a city whose patron saints were Crispin and Crispinian. What happened at Soissons shocked all Christendom, but in the following year, on the feast day of Crispin and Crispinian, Hook finds himself in that small army trapped at Azincourt. The novel is the story of the archers who helped win a battle that has entered legend, but in truth is a tale, as Sir John Keegan says, 'of slaughter-yard behaviour and outright atrocity'. |||
| The Fort | Harper Collins | 2010 |
| The Fort is about the Penobscot Expedition of 1779. A small British garrison was established in what is now Maine (then part of Massachusetts). Seven hundred British redcoats were in an unfinished fort, Fort George, while the harbour beneath the fort was guarded by three sloops-of-war. Against this the rebel government in the State of Massachusetts sent an army of around 900 men and a fleet of 42 ships, half of which were warships, with orders to 'captivate, kill or destroy' the invaders. |||
| Fools and Mortals | Harper Collins | 2017 |
| The Elizabethan world of William Shakespeare and particularly his brother Richard is the backdrop for a world of scheming and drama. |||

## Non-fiction

Cornwell published a nonfiction book, Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles, released in September 2014, timely for the 200th anniversary of that battle.
Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles September 2014 ISBN 000753938X / 9780007539383 (UK edition) Publisher William Collins