Ranulf de Lannion, 'The Scraeling', knows a lot about adversity, because it has shaped his life.

On a night of murder, rape and pillage, marauding Vikings snatch the crippled teenager, on a whim, from the lonely French convent where he was hidden by a family ashamed of his deformity. Survival among such a gung-ho and murderous band of Odin-worshippers takes all his wits, his learning and his intelligence, not to mention raw courage.
But over the years, his ability to out-think, out-plan and out-manoeuvre the band’s enemies and manipulate its allies, earns him a legendary reputation among men who prize deception and cunning almost as much as violence. Even its leader, Harald Hardraada, proudly pronounces The Scraeling, ‘the most dangerous little bugger alive’, in recognition of his apparent value to them.

But even Hardraada, the terrible 'Landwaster', has no idea either of how right he is, nor of how much he has to fear from his own 'chief of staff'. . .

For, although Ranulf is numbered among the most rapacious band of pagans ever to embarrass their Creator, he is not one of them. Secretly, he has dedicated his life to bringing about a sweeping and terrible revenge for the murdered women who brought him up when family turned its back.

The Age of the Viking died with Hardraada in September 1066, for The Scraeling made sure of both.

The trilogy, ‘Chronicles of The Scraeling’ rollicks through the eleventh century and encompasses genuine history, action drama, graphic violence, explicit sex, some outright comedy, romance and tenderness, and even bits of down-home ordinariness. All on a bed of Viking crustiness.
Although each book is complete in itself, The Scraeling's true complexity comes through if they are read in order.