The second installment of Bernard Cornwells bestselling series chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, like Game of Thrones, but real (The Observer, London)the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit BBC America television series.This is the excitingyet little knownstory of the making of England in the 9th and 10th centuries, the years in which King Alfred the Great, his son and grandson defeated the Danish Vikings who had invaded and occupied three of Englands four kingdoms.At the end of The Last Kingdom, The Danes had been defeated at Cynuit, but the triumph of the English is not fated to last long. The Danish Vikings quickly invade and occupy three of Englands four kingdomsand all that remains of the once proud country is a small piece of marshland, where Alfred and his family live with a few soldiers and retainers, including Uhtred, the dispossessed English nobleman who was raised by the Danes. Uhtred has always been a Dane at heart, and has always believed that given the chance, he would fight for the men who raised him and taught him the Viking ways. But when Iseult, a powerful sorceress, enters Uhtreds life, he is forced to consider feelings hes never confronted beforeand Uhtred discovers, in his moment of greatest peril, a new-found loyalty and love for his native country and ruler.