TONY ROBINSON - The House Of Wolf , in Hardback , First Edition / Impression published by Sphere in 2025 .

This book is signed by the author - I met Tony at the Cheltenham Literature Festival .

 By the actor , and author of How The Band Got Together and Odysseus - this is the first book in the House of Aethelwolf series .

" Rome . Father Asser is waiting to die . His idealism has landed him in a papal prison on trumped-up charges of heresy , until salvation arrives in an unexpected form . Cardinal Balotelli also dreams of a better world , free from the ravages of the Norlanders . He has a vital job for Asser , one that could shape the future of Europe .

" Wessex . King Aethelwolf's power is fading , but none of his feckless children are fit to rule . His eldest sons would rather fight each other than the blood-thirsty Norland invaders . His daughter , Swift , is clever and cunning , but often blinded by her ambition . Finally there's Alfred , his once-promising younger son , whom nobody has seen in years . Then Wolf meets a young priest with a proposition from Rome that could change everything .

" Lindisfarne . Rhiannon is a slave with a profound hatred for her Saxon captors . When she meets Guthrum , a Norlander hell-bent on wiping Wessex from the map , they set out on a journey of destruction . So begins an epic struggle between greed and idealism , ambition and betrayal , freedom and tyranny . Because change always meets with resistance and , on the path to power , nobody can be trusted . "