Hello and welcome to the History Extra Podcast from BBC History magazine,

Britain's best-selling history magazine. I'm I'm I'm Ile Cawthorn. In today's episode you'll be hearing from the historical novelist Bernard Cornwall.

Bernard is best known for The Last Kingdom and Sharp series,

both of which have of course been adapted for television. He joined us to talk about

Warlord, the 13th and final installment of the Last Kingdom

series, which tells of the formation of England through the eyes of Uhtred of Battenberg.

BBC History revealed production editor, Kev Lachin, spoke to Bernard to find out more.

Bernard, thank you very much for joining me.

Well, thank you for inviting me.

I feel like we should begin with the end and it's kind of

outrid's end so Warlord is the 13th and final installment in the last

kingdom series how does it feel bringing his tale to a conclusion?

After, I think it's been something like 15 years.

It's been like 15 years, so it's a little bit bittersweet because as you can imagine when you're

writing a book, it haunts you and you

take the dog for a walk and what you're really doing is thinking about what

Utred will do next and that's been my life for the best part of 15 years and suddenly it's over it's just gone.

So yeah there's sadness because I like the man but at the same time there's a sort of relief in

having brought his story to a conclusion.

And without giving away too many spoilers, could you kind of bring us up speed on where we are with the books?

Yes, I mean the big story behind all 13 books is the creation of England, which is a story that seems to be very little known in England.

I mean I had a good history education in Britain, but I don't think I was ever really taught how England became a country.

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