With my new ‘hero’ I’ve decided to forge a different path to previous books. I’ve done bloody and sweary before (Pagan Warrior and The Lady of Mercia’s Daughter) and I’ve done battles and politics (Brunanburh) but for The Last King I wanted something different; full-on action and adventure, in a historical setting, with a hero it’s impossible not to admire. If I’m going to tell the story of the ninth century in England, a period that most historical fiction readers will associate with Bernard Cornwell’s Uhtred, and most historians with Alfred, I needed a strong storyline and a character worthy of that storyline.
Luckily, there’s one such man. Enter King Coelwulf, the almost unknown and completely forgotten about King of Mercia. When I say unknown and forgotten about I mean completely that. If it is indeed the same historical character, Bernard Cornwell has poor old Coelwulf die during a feast with King Alfred and his wife, paving the way for Lord Æthelred (at least he does in The Last Kingdom).
This isn’t actually Bernard Cornwell’s fault. Until the coin find in 2015, no one thought a great deal of Coelwulf. His name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle but it’s far from in a complimentary way (For details of the coin find go here (The Ashmolean Museum – Watlington Hoard)). But he’s been in my thoughts ever since I wrote The Lady of Mercia’s Daughter in 2016, but he’d never fully formed, until, one day, he just did; not just bloody and sweary, but bloody, sweary and brutal, a man with skills to be admired, and a single-minded determination.
So, I give you Lord Coelwulf, proud Mercian and staunch warrior.
The Last King is available now, the sequel, The Last Warrior will be available from June.
M J Porter 
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