Bernard Cornwell Books in Order (The Last Kingdom, Sharpe, Azincourt)

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Born in London in 1944, Bernard Cornwell, is a British writer of historical novels, famous for being the creator of Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe but also for his Last Kingdom stories about the making of England. He worked first as a teacher, before joining BBC Television for the next 10 years. He began his career as a researcher on the Nationwide program and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. In Belfast, he met his now-wife, Judy, an American travel agent, and moved to the United States to be with her.

He was refused a Green Card and decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the US government. Finally, the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars emerged… Later, the famous Richard Sharpe will also become a TV hero on ITV, and his Last Kingdom series has also been adapted for television by BBC–before becoming a hit on Netflix.

How To Read Bernard Cornwell Series in Order?

Read The Sharpe Series in Order

This series chronicles the life of Richard Sharpe in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars. You can find the publication order below. For more details and chronological order, go to our guide to the Richard Sharpe series.

1. Sharpe’s Eagle (1981)
2. Sharpe’s Gold (1981)
3. Sharpe’s Company (1982)
4. Sharpe’s Sword (1983)
5. Sharpe’s Enemy (1984)
6. Sharpe’s Honour (1985)
7. Sharpe’s Regiment (1986)
8. Sharpe’s Siege (1987)
9. Sharpe’s Rifles (1988)
10. Sharpe’s Revenge (1989)
11. Sharpe’s Waterloo (1990)
12. Sharpe’s Devil (1992)
13. Sharpe’s Christmas (2003, two short stories)
14. Sharpe’s Battle (1995)
15. Sharpe’s Tiger (1997)
16. Sharpe’s Triumph (1998)
17. Sharpe’s Fortress (1998)
18. Sharpe’s Skirmish (2002, short story)
19. Sharpe’s Trafalgar (2000)
20. Sharpe’s Prey (2001)
21. Sharpe’s Havoc (2003)
22. Sharpe’s Escape (2004)
23. Sharpe’s Fury (2006)
24. Sharpe’s Assassin (2021)
25. Sharpe’s Command (2022)

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Read The Crowning Mercy Series in Order (with Susannah Kells)

Bernard Cornwell wrote those books with Susannah Kells, the pseudonym of Judy Cornwell, his wife.

1. A Crowning Mercy (1983) – On a sunlit afternoon in seventeenth-century Dorset, a young girl falls in love with a stranger. But when her Puritan brother tries to force her into an unbearable marriage she flees, taking with her only the gift left to her by her unknown father, a gold pendant sealed by an engraving of an axe, and the words: St Matthew. One of four intricately wrought seals – each holding a secret within – it can, when combined with the other three, bring great wealth and power. This power is her true inheritance – but it’s a perilous legacy others will kill for …
2. Fallen Angels (1984) – The streets of Paris run bloodred while in England, the noble Lazenders hide from history’s violent storm behind the walls of their opulent little kingdom. But Toby Lazender, the family’s heir, is hunting the brutal murderers of the woman he loved in revolution-torn France, leaving Lazen Castle vulnerable to secret cabal of assassins conspiring to bring the chaos across the channel. There is an obstacle, however, to the Fallen Angels’ dark plan: Toby’s sister, Lady Campion Lazender. Drawn by a mysterious horseman into a realm of fascination and desire, she sees treachery everywhere and her heart could be leading her to destruction . . . by the hand of the only man she dares to trust.
3. Coat of Arms (1986, aka The Aristocrats)

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Read The Starbuck Chronicles in Order

Set during the American Civil War, the series focuses on Nathaniel Starbuck, a Northerner who has decided to fight for the South in a Virginian regiment, the Faulconer Legion.

1. Rebel (1993) – It is summer 1861. The armies of North and South stand on the brink of America’s civil war. Nathanial Starbuck, jilted by his girl and estranged from his family, arrives in the capital of the Confederate South, where he enlists in an elite regiment being raised by rich, eccentric Washington Faulconer. Pledged to the Faulconer Legion, Starbuck becomes a northern boy fighting for the southern cause. But nothing can prepare him for the shocking violence to follow in the war which broke America in two.
2. Copperhead (1994) – Captain Nate Starbuck, forced out of his beloved Legion by the enmity of its founder, General Washington Faulconer, becomes caught up in a dangerous double game of espionage. He is given no choice but to travel from a prison cell in Richmond, Virginia, to the secret centre of the high Northen command in a desperate attempt to thwart Yankee strategy which threatens to overwhelm the South. Starbuck plays a difficult and complex game of bluff and betrayal in a winner-takes-all effort to save his own life and return to the Legion – but at a high cost to his personal and professional loyalties as a friend and a man of war.
3. Battle Flag (1995) – Captain Nate Starbuck, yankee fighting for the Southern cause, has to survive and win with his ragged Company in the bitter struggle not only against the formidable Northern army but equally in opposition to his own superiors who would like nothing better than to see Nate Starbuck dead and dishonoured.
4. The Bloody Ground (1996) – It is late summer 1862 and the Confederacy is invading the United States of America. Nate Starbuck, a northern preacher’s son fighting for the rebel South, is given command of a punishment battalion – a despised unit of shirkers and cowards. His enemies expect it to be his downfall, as Starbuck must lead this ramshackle unit into a battle that will prove to be the bloodiest of the Civil War.

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Read The Warlord Chronicles in Order (or The Arthur Books)

Bernard 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.

1. The Winter King (1995) – Uther, the High King of Britain, is dead. His only heir is the infant Mordred. Yet each of the country’s lesser kings seek to claim the crown for themselves. While they squabble and spoil for war, a host of Saxon armies gather, preparing for invasion. But no one has counted on the fearsome warlord Arthur. Handed power by Merlin and pursuing a doomed romance with the beautiful Guinevere, Arthur knows he will struggle to unite the country – let alone hold back the Saxon enemy at the gates. Yet destiny awaits him . .
2. Enemy of God (1996) – Now with Enemy of God, Cornwell’s magical re-creation continues. Having defeated the last holdouts of civil war in southern Britain, Arthur has secured Mordred’s throne. But he must still face raging conflicts between the old ways and the new, as well as foes more powerful and more dangerous–because they pose as friends. Brilliantly written and peopled with the familiar faces of legend along with new ones, Enemy of God is an immensely powerful continuation of a modern classic.
3. Excalibur (1997) – Now, in this riveting final volume of The Warlord Chronicles, Cornwell tells the unforgettable tale of Arthur’s final struggles against the Saxons and his last attempts to triumph over a ruined marriage and ravaged dreams. This is the tale not only of a broken love remade, but also of forces both earthly and unearthly that threaten everything Arthur stands for. Peopled by princesses and bards, by warriors and magicians, Excalibur is the story of love, war, loyalty, and betrayal-the work of a magnificent storyteller at the height of his powers.

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Read The Grail Quest Series in Order

The series focuses on Thomas of Hookton, a mid-14th century English archer, who becomes drawn into the search for the Holy Grail during the Hundred Years’ War.

1. Harlequin (aka The Archer’s Tale, 2000) – The army was led by the King, the great lords and knights, but it is the archers, the common men who are to be England’s secret weapon. Thomas of Hookton is one of those archers. But he is also on a personal mission – one he frequently forgets in the joy of fighting – to avenge his father’s killing by a French raider and to retrieve his family’s treasure. But the journey is far more complex and treacherous than he had expected and the enemy who awaits him could harness the power of Christendom’s greatest relic – the Grail itself.
2. Vagabond (2002) – Having survived the battle of Crécy, Thomas is sent back to England, charged with finding the Holy Grail. But Thomas is an archer and when a chance comes to fight against an army invading northern England he jumps at it. Plunged into the carnage of Neville’s Cross, he is oblivious to other enemies who want to destroy him. He discovers too late that he is not the only person pursuing the grail, and that his rivals will do anything to thwart him.
3. Heretic (2003) – In 1347 the English capture Calais and the war with France is suspended by a truce. But for Thomas of Hookton, the hero of Harlequin and Vagabond, there is no end to the fighting. He is pursuing the grail and is sent to his ancestral homeland, Gascony, to engineer a confrontation with his deadliest enemy, Guy Vexille. Once in the south country Thomas becomes a raider, leading his archers in savage forays that will draw his enemy to his arrows. But then his fortunes change. Thomas becomes the hunted as his campaign is destroyed by the church. With only one companion, a girl condemned to burn as a heretic, Thomas goes to the valley of Astarac where he believes the grail was once hidden and might still be concealed, and there he plays a deadly game of hide and seek with an overwhelming enemy.
4. 1356 (2012) – 1356: France stands alert to danger. The English army, victorious at the battle of Crécy and led by the Black Prince, is invading and the French are hunting them down. The bloodiest battles of the Hundred Years War are yet to be fought. Thomas of Hookton, an English archer, becomes trapped with his outnumbered army. And here, near the town of Poitiers, an extraordinary confrontation will ignite one of the greatest battles of all time.

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Read The Last Kingdom Series in Order

Formerly known as ‘The Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories’, The Last Kingdom Series is the tale of Alfred the Great and his descendants through the eyes of Uhtred Ragnarson. The series chronicles the emergence of England as a nation on the island of Britain from the actions of King Alfred of Wessex. It is now a Netflix TV Show. For more details go to our guide to the Last Kingdom books.

1. The Last Kingdom (2004)
2. The Pale Horseman (2005)
3. The Lords of the North (2006)
4. Sword Song (2007)
5. The Burning Land (2009)
6. Death of Kings (2011)
7. The Pagan Lord (2013)
8. The Empty Throne (2014)
9. Warriors of the Storm (2015)
10. The Flame Bearer (2016)
11. War of the Wolf (2018)
12. Sword of Kings (2019)
13. War Lord (2020)

• Bonus: Uhtred’s Feast (2023)

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Read The Sailing Thrillers in Order

1. Wildtrack (1988) – Nick Sandman’s spine was shattered by a bullet in the Falklands. He has no money and no prospects, only a dream of sailing far away from his troubles on his boat, Sycorax. But Sycorax is as crippled as he is, and to make her seaworthy again, Nick must strike a devil’s bargain with egomaniacal TV star Tony Bannister. Signing on to the crew of Bannister’s powerful ocean racer, Wildtrack, Nick is expected to help sail her to victory. But the despised celebrity has made some powerful enemies who will stop at nothing for revenge. . .
2. Sea Lord (1989, aka Killer’s Wake) – 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.
3. Crackdown (1990) – Paradise is the perfect escape for ex-Marine Nick Breakspear, captain of a charter yacht operation in the Bahamas, until he agrees to pilot a “detox cruise” for the drug-addled grown son and daughter of a powerful U.S. senator. Ambushed far from port, he is helpless to prevent the murder of a crew member by modern-day pirates who sink Nick’s yacht before vanishing with the senator’s kids. Having barely eluded death, Nick must immediately set sail for disaster once again. For there’s a death to be avenged on the dark side of Eden, the senator is demanding that his lost children be found . . . and the woman Nick loves is being held prisoner by killers somewhere on Murder Cay.

4. Stormchild (1991) – A contemporary tale of danger on the high and treacherous seas. The gripping story of a man who has lost almost everything in his life and now must race across perilous waters aboard his sloop Stormchild in a desperate attempt to rescue his daughter from the clutches of a shadowy cult and its mad leader.
5. Scoundrel (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.

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Other standalone novels by Bernard Cornwell

• Redcoat (1987) – It is autumn 1777, and the cradle of liberty, Philadelphia, has fallen to the British. Yet the true battle has only just begun. On both sides, loyalties are tested and families torn asunder. The young Redcoat Sam Gilpin has seen his brother die. Now he must choose between duty to a distant king and the call of his own conscience. And for the men and women of the prosperous Becket family, the Revolution brings bitter conflict between those loyal to the crown and those with dreams of liberty. Soon, across the fields of ice and blood in a place called Valley Forge, history will be rewritten, changing the lives and fortunes of these men and women forever.
• Stonehenge (1999) – The tale of three brothers who are uneasily united in their quest to create a temple to their gods. Lengar, the eldest brother, kills his own father to become chief of his tribe. Camaban, the illegitimate middle brother, is determined to have a massive temple built in his own honor. And Saban, the youngest, who actually builds Stonehenge, must act as mediator between the other two. Stonehenge is the enthrallingly dramatic story of patricide, betrayal, and murder; of bloody brotherly rivalry; and of the never-ending quest for power, wealth, and spiritual fulfillment.
• Gallows Thief (2001) – Rider Sandman, hero of Waterloo and now an investigator for the government, investigates the murder of the Countess of Avebury who was killed while having her portrait painted. The artist has been convicted of her murder and is due to hang.

• Azincourt (2008) – tells the story of a small army; how it embarked from England confident of victory, but was beaten down and horribly weakened by the stubborn French defence of Harfleur. By the end of that siege common-sense dictated that the army sail for home, but Henry V was stubbornly convinced that God was on his side and insisted on marching from Harfleur to Calais to prove that he could defy the great French army that was gathering to crush him.
• The Fort (2010) – About the Penobscot Expedition of 1779. A small British garrison had been established in what is now Maine (and was then part of Massachusetts), and the rebel government in Boston was determined to expel that garrison.
• Fools and Mortal (2017) – In the heart of Elizabethan England, Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in one of the London playhouses, a world dominated by his older brother, William. But he is a penniless actor, making ends meet through a combination of a beautiful face, petty theft and a silver tongue. As William’s star rises, Richard’s onetime gratitude is souring and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty. So when a priceless manuscript goes missing, suspicion falls upon Richard, forcing him onto a perilous path through a bawdy and frequently brutal London.

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Read the Non-fiction Books by Bernard Cornwell

• Sharpe’s Story – Sharpe’s Story is Bernard Cornwell’s own account of the Sharpe series; how it began and how it has evolved over nearly thirty years.
• Waterloo; The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles (2014) – Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment, from Napoleon’s daring escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath. Through quotes from the letters and diaries of Emperor Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and the ordinary officers and soldiers, he brings to life how it actually felt to fight those famous battles-as well as the moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the actual outcome hanging in the balance until the bitter end.

If you like our Bernard Cornwell reading order, you may be interested in checking out the Matthew Hawkwood Books, Harry Sidebottom’s series, Anthony Riches’s Empire novels.