The Last Kingdom

American fans of Bernard Cornwall’s Saxon series, good news. The TV series based upon these books begins tonight in the US on BBC America, 10 PM EST, titled after the first book, The Last Kingdom. The advance reviews I’ve read so far have been favorable, comparing it to the series, The Vikings. I assume it will premiere in the UK and Down Under soon, too, if it has not already done so. And UK readers can now order the latest Cornwall book in this series, Warriors of the Storm; it will be published in the US in January. For those of you who’ve not read any of these books, set in 9th century England, I recommend them highly. His major character, Uthred, a Saxon captured and raised as a Dane, is a marvelous creation, bold, swaggering, sardonic; perhaps his most amusing and endearing trait is that he usually realizes when he is about to do something utterly reckless or foolish, but he then goes ahead and does it anyway.