Bernard Cornwell Books in Order

Winter 1813 in France is brutal, and Sharpe’s new problem is an eager naval officer with sealed orders and no sense of self-preservation. Sharpe’s task is simple to say and hard to do: keep the man alive.

Spain, 1812: Sharpe is sent on a reconnaissance mission that turns into an assault on a key French position guarding a vital bridge. With time running out and plans collapsing, he has to lead from the front to make it work.

Part companion and part story collection, this book mixes Uhtred-era background with recipes inspired by Anglo-Saxon life. It’s a fun side trip for Last Kingdom fans, with short narrative pieces and practical cooking ideas.

After Waterloo, Sharpe is sent into occupied Paris to track a murderous plot and recover a missing spy. Street fights replace set-piece battles, and he learns that victory doesn’t end danger—it just changes its shape.

England is close to being one kingdom, but rival heirs and old enemies still threaten to tear it apart. Older, battle-scarred Uhtred rides again, gambling everything on one last campaign to secure the future.

As new rulers rise, Uhtred tries to keep a fragile peace along the border while ambitious men plot in the shadows. A fresh Viking threat and royal politics force him into choices that could break alliances he’s built for decades.

Uhtred faces a new enemy in the north—a leader willing to use fear and faith as weapons. While kings argue over crowns and borders, Uhtred fights to protect his people and keep England from sliding back into chaos.

In Elizabethan London, Richard Shakespeare is pulled into the cutthroat theatre world of his older brother. When a rival company steals a new play, Richard joins the chase through taverns, backstreets, and backstage politics.

Uhtred has spent a lifetime serving other kings, but his deepest goal remains: reclaiming Bebbanburg. When war opens a narrow window, he risks everything on a return to the fortress that defines his identity.

This narrative history follows the tense days leading to Waterloo, tracing Napoleon’s return, Wellington’s preparations, and the clash that ended an era. Cornwell focuses on battlefield decisions and the people caught in them.

A powerful Viking army returns, and the fragile peace of England shatters. Uhtred must gather allies fast and hold a critical line, because one defeat could undo decades of hard-won unity.

After a ruler’s death, Mercia becomes the prize in a dangerous political struggle. Uhtred is pulled into court intrigue and battlefield threats alike, trying to place the right leader without starting a civil war.

Falsely accused and pushed to the edge of outlawry, Uhtred is forced to fight for his name as much as for his land. With friends in danger and enemies closing in, he chooses a risky path back to power.

A decade after earlier campaigns, archer Thomas of Hookton rides into France again with a small band and a dangerous vow. Their path leads toward the Battle of Poitiers, where one bold raid could change the war—or wipe them out.

Alfred’s health fails as war with the Danes flares again, and the question of succession turns deadly. Uhtred is trapped behind enemy lines with a vital mission, where one mistake could cost kingdoms.

In 1779, a disastrous American expedition sails to capture a British fort in Maine, and everything that can go wrong does. Seen from multiple sides, the siege becomes a lesson in leadership, fear, and how war punishes bad plans.

With England’s borders still uncertain, Uhtred rides south into a campaign where raids and revenge blur together. Betrayal and shifting alliances force him to decide who he can trust—and what kind of leader he wants to be.

Longbowman Nicholas Hook is an outlaw given a second chance by joining Henry V’s army. Marching into France, he survives brutal skirmishes and a starving campaign that culminates in the bloody miracle of Agincourt.

London is being rebuilt as a Saxon stronghold, but Viking attacks and internal plots threaten to tear it down. Uhtred is asked to defend the city, balancing faith, politics, and hard steel in the streets.

Bernard Cornwell looks back on how the Sharpe books began and how the series grew over decades. It’s part behind-the-scenes memoir, part writing reflection, with extra context for readers curious about Sharpe’s roots.

Sent south into winter fighting, Sharpe finds himself in a risky operation that explodes into a hard-won battle on Spain’s coast. With allies unreliable and enemies everywhere, he has to choose between orders and opportunity.

Uhtred heads into Northumbria, caught between rival kings and Viking warlords who all want his sword. Far from Alfred’s court, he fights to build his own power while Bebbanburg still pulls at him.

Wessex is on the brink as the Danes strike hard, and Alfred’s hope for a united land looks like a fantasy. Uhtred must choose between the people who raised him and the king who needs him—under siege and betrayal.

In ninth-century England, Uhtred is a Saxon noble’s son raised by Danes, torn between two cultures. When war threatens Alfred’s Wessex, he must choose where his loyalties lie—and what it will cost to reclaim his home.

In 1810 the French push into Portugal, and Sharpe faces the grinding retreat behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. With his men hungry and battered, he gambles on a plan that could save them—or trap them.

Portugal, 1809: the French invade, and Sharpe marches with the British counterattack. Amid sabotage and shifting allies, he’s tasked with a mission that could expose a conspiracy—or leave him facing a firing squad.

Thomas of Hookton continues his hunt for the Holy Grail while France and England pause between battles. Pursued by enemies and plague alike, he fights a vicious shadow war that tests faith, friendship, and the cost of obsession.

Back in England, Thomas of Hookton follows a clue to his father’s legacy and is swept into invasion and betrayal. The trail pulls him back to France, where the Grail quest turns into a brutal fight for survival and vengeance.

In Copenhagen, Sharpe is drawn into a ruthless campaign meant to keep Denmark’s fleet out of Napoleon’s hands. Bombardment turns civilians into targets, and Sharpe must decide how far he’ll go to follow orders and survive.

In early 19th-century London, a soldier turned investigator is asked to look into a hanging that feels wrong. The deeper he digs, the more he collides with corruption, crime, and a justice system that wants the case closed.

In the early Hundred Years’ War, Thomas of Hookton joins the English armies after tragedy destroys his village. His search for a rumored sacred relic drags him through Brittany, raids, and the slaughter of Crécy—where longbow skill is life.

On the voyage home from India, Sharpe is caught up with the fleet heading toward Trafalgar. Trapped aboard a warship, he faces naval combat, spies, and the chaos of a battle that will reshape Europe.

In prehistoric Britain, rival tribes and rival priests compete to raise a monument meant to unite the land and honor the dead. As politics and bloodshed rise, one young warrior must choose between loyalty and a dream built in stone.

Recovering from wounds, Sharpe is given what should be easy duty guarding a remote fort and a fussy official. Then a French raid turns the assignment into a siege, and he must fight with whatever he can salvage.

Newly commissioned, Sharpe takes part in the assault on a hill fortress in India where ladders are too short and men are panicking. He has to improvise under fire to prove he belongs among officers.

Still in India, Sharpe serves alongside Arthur Wellesley at a savage battle where courage and discipline are tested to breaking point. A dangerous rival officer and army politics threaten to ruin him just as he gets his chance to rise.

In 1799 India, private Richard Sharpe fights in a brutal siege while dodging a vicious sergeant who wants him dead. Survival depends on nerve, luck, and learning how to bend army rules without snapping.

The wars Arthur has delayed finally arrive in full force, and Derfel marches toward a decisive battle that could save Britain. With friends turning into enemies and prophecy hanging overhead, the legend reaches its grim, hard-earned climax.

At Antietam, Starbuck enters the single bloodiest day of the war and discovers courage has limits. Trapped in a battle that won’t end, he fights to survive while the ideals he once held are stripped down to raw necessity.

Britain’s fragile peace fractures, and Arthur’s dream of unity starts to look impossible. Derfel fights across kingdoms where old gods, new faith, and personal vendettas collide, and every victory seems to create a fresh betrayal.

In post-Roman Britain, Derfel is rescued and raised among warriors loyal to Arthur, a warlord trying to hold the land together. As kings scheme and Saxon invaders press in, Derfel is drawn into oaths that will shape a legend.

At Fuentes de Oñoro, Sharpe finds the war reduced to street fighting and close-quarters slaughter. With rivals plotting and the French pressing hard, he has to hold his unit together in a battle that turns savage.

In 1862, Starbuck faces the chaos of the second Battle of Bull Run, where confusion kills as surely as bullets. With his reputation shaky and enemies nearby, he must keep his men together through a disaster in motion.

In peacetime Normandy, Sharpe wants quiet days with Lucille—until old enemies arrive demanding gold they believe he stole. With his home threatened and no army to hide behind, he must outwit the raiders on familiar ground.

Starbuck survives early disasters and marches into the Peninsula Campaign, where leadership and loyalty are tested daily. As Robert E. Lee rises to command, his unit is pushed toward fights that will decide the war’s direction.

Young Nathaniel Starbuck, a Northern preacher’s son, unexpectedly joins the Confederate army and is thrown into his first major battle at Bull Run. Fighting to prove he belongs, he learns how quickly war turns men into targets.

Retired at last, Sharpe is pulled into a journey to Chile to find a vanished friend in a colony on the edge of revolt. Along the way he crosses paths with Napoleon and a legendary seafaring commander, and trouble follows.

Trying to disappear, a man returns to Cape Cod carrying dangerous baggage from Europe and past links to the IRA. But people who know his history won’t let him quit, and the quiet coastline becomes the scene of a new hunt.

A high-seas voyage turns into a clash with radical activists planning an environmental stunt that could turn catastrophic. Caught between ideals and violence, a reluctant hero races to stop the plan before the ocean becomes a battlefield.

In June 1815, Sharpe marches into the Waterloo campaign and faces the fight that will decide Europe’s future. Amid chaos and smoke, he struggles to keep his men alive long enough to settle a score that won’t wait.

Recovering from injury, a man takes a restful cruise in the Bahamas—then cocaine and murder arrive on deck. With criminals and authorities closing in, he must untangle who’s running the operation before he becomes the next body.

As the war ends, Sharpe chases Pierre Ducos into a Europe where Napoleon’s fall creates new opportunities for thieves. A missing treasure and unfinished grudges drag him into a dangerous peacetime pursuit.

A reluctant aristocrat dreams of living free as a wandering sailor, until a theft at his family home drags him back to England. Family politics turn violent, and his attempt to clear the mess puts him in deeper water than any storm.

A wounded Falklands veteran signs on for a brutal Atlantic sailing passage and ends up babysitting a famous TV presenter. When death and suspicion follow the crew, he has to decide whether he’s trapped with a murderer.

At the start of the Peninsular War, Sharpe joins an elite rifle unit during the retreat to Corunna. Leading hard-bitten men behind enemy lines, he learns that courage isn’t enough when commanders are incompetent.

A covert raid on a French coastal fort goes catastrophically wrong, leaving Sharpe stranded and hunted. With only an unlikely ally beside him, he must outthink Pierre Ducos to get off the coast alive.

In 1777, British soldier Richard Gilpin marches through the Philadelphia campaign of the American Revolution. Battles, desertions, and shifting loyalties test his nerve as he learns what empire looks like from the muddy end of a musket.

Back in England, Sharpe is ordered to recruit men for the South Essex and discovers the home front has its own predators. An enemy with bureaucratic power tries to destroy him without firing a shot.

As Wellington’s campaign races toward victory, Sharpe is caught between espionage, politics, and Pierre Ducos’s attempts to end him. Rescues, shifting loyalties, and a looming battle force him to gamble everything he’s earned.

Sharpe is sent into the border mountains to crush a brutal band of deserters who terrorize both sides. With old nemesis Obadiah Hakeswill in the mix, the mission becomes as personal as it is dangerous.

The Lazender family is caught in the shock waves of the French Revolution, where old money and old secrets can become deadly liabilities. As plots cross borders, one wrong trust could destroy the people trying to survive.

On the eve of Salamanca, Sharpe is pulled into a dangerous web of spies and aristocrats. When battle erupts, his skill and nerve may not be enough to save him from betrayal and army politics.

During the English Civil War, a young woman escapes a harsh household and falls for the heir of a Royalist family. A mysterious keepsake launches a hunt for identity and inheritance, with danger tightening around every choice.

Assigned to the bloody assault on Badajoz, Sharpe leads his men into chaos where discipline breaks and vengeance takes over. An old enemy returns, and Sharpe must survive both the fortress and the madness inside it.

Short of pay and supplies, Sharpe is sent on a desperate hunt for a cache of Spanish gold. Guerrillas, betrayal, and brutal terrain turn the mission into a test of whether he can keep his men alive and loyal.

After Talavera, Sharpe is ordered to seize an enemy battle standard—an eagle that could restore a disgraced regiment’s honor. Outnumbered and mistrusted, he fights for his reputation as much as for victory.