‘At the age of fourteen I had already decided on my future; I would become a ruler, free to give my wishes the force of law. My ambition was not inordinate; I did not want a wide kingdom, only an absolute one.’

Cerdic Elesing, King of Wessex and ancestor of all subsequent British monarchs, narrates in this fictional biography how he murdered, cheated, looted and lied his way to the great position he ultimately held – and in the process served with the great Roman leader Ambrosius and the Saxon warlord Aella, and was the foe Arthur defeated at Mount Badon, in a thoroughly entertaining and convincing new take on the last days of the Roman Empire in Britain.

‘Few novelists can touch Alfred Duggan when it comes to re-creating remote corners of historical time and place’ Guardian