From the Publisher
"Cornwell’s prose is a pleasure to read, and the food facts are fun." — Kirkus Reviews
“Absolutely fascinating . . . . an illuminating history of Uhtred’s people is interwoven with background about Cornwell’s popular series of novels. Cornwell is a fine storyteller, and this rich, beautifully written book is a guaranteed must- read for his legion of fans.” — Booklist
“Uhtred’s Feast is different from other books in the Last Kingdom series. . . . If you are curious about what the Anglo-Saxons ate you ought to consider this book. . . . You might find some of the 60 recipes worth following for a delightful Anglo-Saxon meal.” — New York Journal of Books
"For fans of the Last Kingdom series, which was also a hit Netflix series, the highlight of the book is likely to be the three short stories that cover three periods in Uhtred’s life." — Cape Cod Chronicle
“For anyone interested in trying a recipe from the Dark Ages, Uhtred’s Feast offers a sundry of recipes for a celebration steeped in rich traditions and engaging tales about a pagan warrior’s first victory in childhood, his relationship to the Christian King Alfred, and a battle in his later years.” — Historical Novels Review
"For fans of Uhtred, the meat or mead of this book is a chance to return, however briefly, to much-missed characters." — Historical Novel Society
“Uhtred’s Feast is an entertaining introduction to the kitchens and the history of a long-ago and often obscure historical epoch." — Epoch Times
Kirkus Reviews
2023-08-30
Three new stories about Uhtred, protagonist of Cornwell’s Last Kingdom series, each preceded by historical background material and followed by recipes.
Uhtred of Bebbanburg looks back as an old man on some of his adventures in the ninth century as Englaland went through its “long and brutal” coalescence into the kingdom of England. At age 8, Uhtred is already hearing his father tell him he is useless if he cannot fight. But the wee lad must also trap eels from the local creek, because his father loves to eat them. When the child is ambushed and robbed of his catch by other children, he must fight his enemy with a wooden sword. The stories are light on plot, serving mostly as vehicles to show what people ate. Cornwell and his collaborator, Suzanne Pollak, who crafted the recipes based on Anglo-Saxon fare, clearly enjoyed themselves researching and writing this unusual hybrid of history, fiction, and cookbook. Pork chops with apples sounds tasty, but do you really, really want a two-page recipe for eel pie? Or for fermented shredded turnip? The historical background chapters offer plenty of interesting nuggets; for example, the fact that people generally drank ale because it was safer than water. Few characters other than Uhtred get much development, but his pungent narration offers plenty of meat. By the time of his reminiscences, he has long since become a confirmed pagan, but he recalls that as a boy he was “scared into a belief in the nailed god because [he] knew no better.” Asked at one point if King Alfred should be declared a saint, he sardonically replies that “as a young man Alfred went through the kitchen maids like a hot seax through butter! He even had a bastard son by one of them”—Uhtred himself. The concept of showing what people ate a thousand years ago is appealing, but adding detailed recipes (for example, “Preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7” to roast fennel just right) would seem to limit the book’s audience drastically. The stories themselves need to be more eventful and provide greater challenges for Uhtred; the historical background would work better if it were woven into the fiction rather than unloaded in stand-alone sections. That said, Cornwell’s prose is a pleasure to read, and the food facts are fun.
An enjoyable experiment that almost works.
