The author of over three dozen historical novels, Bernard Cornwell is best known for his many novels detailing the life and adventures of Richard Sharpe during the Napoleonic age, which were adapted for a popular television series. Other well-known series from Cornwell include the "Warlord Chronicles," a trio of books about British King Arthur, the "Nathaniel Starbuck Chronicles," set during the American Civil War, the "Grail Quest," set during the Hundred Years' War, and a novel of Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain titled Stonehenge. Scrupulously researched and graphic in descriptions of violence and squalor, Cornwell's books aim to capture the spirit of the era in which they are set, whether it be the France of Napoleon's time or the Celtic Britain of the legendary King Arthur. In Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, Geoffrey Sadler acknowledged Cornwell as "a leading figure . . . in the field of the historical novel," adding...