Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 and spent his childhood in south Essex. After graduating from the University of London, he worked for the BBC television network for several years, until he took over the information department in Northern Ireland, and in 1978 he went on to direct the Thames at Six program for Thames. Television. He currently resides in the United States.

His series dedicated to Richard Sharpe made him one of the most read and most successful writers in the genre of historical adventure novels, a condition that he once again highlighted with the trilogy consisting of Archers of the King (2001), The Battle of the Grail (2002) and The Siege of Calais (2004) or the tetralogy about Starbuck, set in the American Civil War. The novels Stonehenge (2000), The Gallows Thief (2003), Azincourt (2010) and The Strong (2011) are also a good example of his talent, as well as the "Chronicles of the Lord of War", a trilogy composed by El King of Winter (2008), The Enemy of God (2009) and Excalibur (2010), of which a television series was released in 2024. To his credit there is also a work of non-fiction or historical essay: Waterloo (2015).

However, it has been the cycle of thirteen novels about the confluence of Saxons, Vikings and Normans, begun with Northumbria. The Last Kingdom (2006), which has elevated him to the top of the best historical novelists and has made him a true best-seller. For this reason, among other things, it has been brought to the screen (BBC and Netflix), under the title The Last Kingdom, with a five-season series and final closing film.