Guitars and Life

Bernard Cornwell - The Empty Throne. The next instalment in the Lord Uhtred saga.  I've always really enjoyed Bernard's books, great historical research and then placing great fictional characters with great stories into real life historical events.  This saga now on the eight instalment.  We've followed Uhtred from his forcible exit from his family home of Bamburgh Castle as a child, through his time as a slave to his unusual alliance as a pagan with the most pious King Alfred helping Wessex to eject marauding Danes from it's borders and helping Alfred in his quest for a united England.  In this one Alfred is dead, Uhtred himself is recovering from the near fatal wound he received at the end of the last book The Pagan Lord.  He is grievously ill and with his failing strength others manoeuvre around him to try to ensure the crown of Mercia is grabbed by enemies.  Of course Uhtred whilst ill is not to be ignored and he soon is politically dealing to reinst...

Bernard Cornwell - The Pagan Lord I've just finished Bernard Cornwell's "The Pagan Lord" - I bought this for my Kindle with a birthday Amazon voucher my sister kindly gave me.  I like Cornwell's stuff and have read most of his books except any of the Sharpe series for some reason.  This latest one was the continuation of his Warlord series with Lord Uhtred the pagan lord of the title.  Uhtred has had an interesting life - a fictional character set against the reign of King Alfred and then afterwards.  This is afterwards with Edward on the throne of Wessex but a move by the Danes in the north of Britain to push south and take the dream of a united England away again. Uhtred has been banished after a disagreement with the Christian church has led to him kill an Abbot.  But with a small band he disrupted the Danish plans and becomes again the hero of the Saxons.  Great read with much terrific research by Cornwell in to a time when little is truly known of ...

Death of Kings - Bernard Cornwell. The latest in Cornwells Lord Uhtred series.  This one finds devout pagan, Danish raised Uhtred still fighting for the Saxons.  Alfred the Great is nearing the end of his life without seeing his dream of all England united in a single kingdom... the squables with the Danelaw in the majority of the north of the country overshadow this.  With Alfred near to death some scheme to take the crown of Wessex for themselves, others eye Mercia the puppet kingdom that is a buffer between Wessex and Danelaw.  Others want peace - peace?  With Uhtred about?  No chance!  Even in his 40s he is the most feared Saxon warrior.  This brilliantly tells the history around the narrative of Uhtred and his follows. I love Cornwell's stuff - if you love old history and fictional novels based way back when - read this.  Makes you proud to be British and descended from these tough guys!  As I sit there reading it on a Kindle in...

I owe some ... here goes I am Ozzy Ozzy's autobiography - well sounds like he rambled into a tape recorder and some other guy tried to make sense of it all! Actually it was a captivating read - he is a pretty humble guy in many ways to who life seems to happen with some stunning results! He tells it how he remembers it, but he admits that he has probably arsed up his brain cells over the years and that others are at liberty to contest his version of events. Black Sabbath's rise is interesting, like other stars who I've read about there is this bit where... "we were in the van driving here and there, doing loads of gigs, any gig, we had no gear/money/anywhere to live etc. We got this manager and he was hawking us about, we made the album, this went well, that less so, we went back on the road - then the manager called and said The album is no 1, 10 whatever"... It is amazing that the move from nobody to star is a) so quick b) seems to not be noticed directly b...