Bernard Cornwell

We'll let you know when we're going to spoil the first two books, and then we'll let you know before we start spoiling Excalibur Book 3.

Overall series by Bernard Cornwell here.

I'm very impressed.

And if people haven't gotten into the trilogy, it is Arthurian tale, Arthurian legend that reads like a historical fiction, has fantasy elements in there, and it is about the King Arthur, but from the perspective of one of his warlords, Durfel.

From the audiobook Minidbadon.

Minidbadon, yes.

And that historical note just showing how Bernard Cornwell obviously knows the history of this time period and does such a good job at making it feel like this is the lost hell of the real Arthur.

Yeah.

That is hilarious.

Because, of course, the novels were famously written by Bernard Cornwell.

Stephen Butcher was the television adapter.

Right.

I just started setting aside a half hour of my morning to read a chapter of my book.

What book are you reading? The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell.

What's that about? King Arthur.

Oh, cool.

So where, where I'm now becoming obsessed with that period of, of Britain, the between 400 and 1000, like bas- basically before 1066 is it, or 1060 whatever, with the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror.

But that period of history, so interesting to me now because of Bernard Cornwell and his series.

It's just, he does a great job at immersing you in this with also telling a great tale.

Oh, yeah.

It's absolutely fantastic.

The characters are all so incredibly endearing.

Bernard Cornwell doing a lot of heavy lifting of characters that, again, don't have your modern sensibilities.

So these characters do some pretty awful things to a lot of people.

It's funny beforehand, I was laughing to myself.

I was like, the thing I want to talk to Mark most about is like Stephen Fry and Bernard Cornwell novels, because I know you're a huge historical fiction buff.

I was like, maybe we'll dive into that at some point.

But those are some of my favorite posts you have.

Historical novel set in Elizabethan England, which follows the life of Richard Shakespeare, a struggling actor in a theatre company, dominated by his estranged elder brother, the playwright William Shakespeare.

That's at 9.30pm. and it will be repeated at 9.15 p.m. this evening, Fools and Mortals, 2017, by Bernard Cornwell, read by Lorraine Lidster.

There is also an afternoon adult book reading at 5 p.m., The City of Gold, published in 1992, written by thriller writer Len Dayton, read by Donald Purley.

Cairo, a city ruled by Egyptian royalty, occupied by the British military, seething with spies and deserters.

Yeah.

But then you step into the television and film adaptation of Bernard Cornwell's historical epic, The Last Kingdom.

Mm-hmm.

And that familiar disappointment just, it simply doesn't exist.

What you can discard without losing yourself.

It explores how identity, whether it's personal, corporate, or national, is forged under immense crushing pressure.

Okay, let's unpack this because to understand how they successfully translated that pressure to the screen, we really need to look at the engine of the original blueprint that Bernard Cornwell built.

Right, the source material.