Viking Fire

'Justin Hill's writing is superb . . . the sense of a world on the edge of turning is gloriously, brilliantly - and utterly believably - evoked' Manda Scott1066. The greatest threat to England lies not in Normandy, but to the north, in Norway with Harald Hardrada, the most famous warrior in Christendom. But Hardrada's own route to kingship is fraught with danger and political intrigue. He becomes the lover of empresses, the murderer of an emperor; he holds the balance of power in the Byzantine Empire in his hands, and gives it all up for a Russian princess and the chance to return home and lead his people from barbarity and heathenism. But home is not all that he has imagined. He must fight the demons of his past, his family and his countrymen in a long and bitter war for revenge and power. This is the astonishing true story of the most famous warrior in all Christendom: Harald Hardrada, the Last Viking.'Justin Hill's energetic re-creation of Hardrada's career shows that his was an extraordinary life . . . gripping' Nick Rennison, BBC History'Viking Fire is a sophisticated, subtle evocation of a brutal age' Sunday Times