The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The Fateful Year: 1066 When William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold II on Senlac ridge on that chill autumn day in October 1066, he must have hoped that the whole country would submit to him without further delay. But he soon found out that little had changed...
Paul, many congratulations on Blood Feud. We’re now at the start of a new series with Blood Feud, it’s 1067 and so post Hastings. The Conqueror has been crowned. What was the state of the kingdom so soon after this seismic event in English history? Thanks. I’m not...
Paul Bernardi, this was your first novel - had you always planned for a trilogy or did the Thurkill's Revenge lead to the following two books? I think it was an idea that evolved over time. I studied this period at university and had always wanted to write about it....
Resistance to the Normans. You might be forgiven for thinking that the events of 1066 led to a simple shift in power from the old Anglo-Saxon era to that of the new Norman period. And, though it is true to say that a great number of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, warrior...
‘No ship that ever sailed brought England such disaster.’ So said William of Malmesbury writing in the 12th century about the events of a freezing cold November night in 1120 which ultimately led to the destruction of Henry I’s carefully engineered legacy. It was true...
What’s Blood Price about? In short, it’s your classic murder mystery story. The sort of tale that is as old as the hills. The difference with this one is that it’s set in the pre-conquest England of King Knut – sometime around the 1020s. The story centres on a young...
Iron & Gold is a distinctive collection of six short stories which span the Middle Ages. There is an overwhelming narrative of honour, integrity, love and timelessness which unite these tales. Additionally, there are interviews with each of the authors after each...
Harald Hardrada is one of the characters from history who has always fascinated me. I mean, anyone who goes by the moniker ‘Hard Ruler’ must have something about them, right? For the purposes of full transparency, though, I should point out that he has an...
Don Hollway, Harald plays an all too brief part in the history of these isles but there is so much more to the man. What led you to want to write about him? I first read Hardrada’s story as a boy and thought, “Wow, what a life that guy led!” I always wanted to tell...
Paul Bernardi’s Thurkill’s Rebellion picks up immediately where the second instalment of the Huscarl Chronicles left off. Forced back onto the run thanks to the fallout of the bloody events of Thurkill’s Battle, the protagonist finds himself in a new position of...
