Series

After the legends of Arthur, yet before the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, a tribal age of iron and rust ruled.

Britain AD540.

In the western hinterland of Roman Britannia, Meddi, the seeress of the Eorlingas tribe, can only obtain vengeance when her husband’s dead and her ancestral villa returned to her.

With her brother, Madog, as leader, they unite and stand strong against those who seek the riches of their villa. They must harness the power of the lost magiks of iron to make weapons to mercilessly oppose those who seek to challenge and fight to rule.

Meanwhile in the east, Waermund, a young warrior of Saxon descent, has exacted the ultimate revenge against his brother. Startled by his own ruthlessness, he knows his father will pursue him to exact retribution. He and his band of miscreant warriors must flee westwards and forge a new future by earning coin from those too weak to protect themselves.

Meddi and Wærmund are set to collide in a world of iron and rust.

An action-packed, thrilling historical adventure set during the Dark Ages. You won't be able to stop reading!

The start of a brand-new series 'The Eagle of Mercia Chronicles' from bestselling author MJ Porter.
The once-mighty kingdom of Mercia is in perilous danger.

Tamworth, Mercia AD825

Beornwulf Mercia's King, lies dead and years of bitter in-fighting between the nobles, and cross border wars have left Mercia exposed to her enemies.

King Ecgberht of Wessex senses now is the time for his warriors to strike and exact his long-awaited bloody revenge on Mercia.

King Wiglaf, has claimed his right to rule Mercia, but can he unite a disparate Kingdom against the might of Wessex who are braying for blood and land?

Can King Wiglaf keep the dragons at bay or is Mercia doomed to disappear beneath the wings of the Wessex wyvern?

Can anyone save Mercia from destruction?

Betrayal is a family affair.

12th June AD918.

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians and daughter of Alfred the Great, is dead.

Ælfwynn, the niece of Edward, king of Wessex, has been bequeathed her mother’s power and status by the men of the Mercian witan. But she knows Mercia is vulnerable to the north, exposed to the retreating world of the Viking raiders from her mother’s generation.

With her cousin Athelstan, Ealdorman Æthelfrith and his sons, Archbishop Plegmund and her band of trusted warriors, Ælfwynn must act decisively to counter the threat from the Norse. Led by Rognavaldr, the grandson of the infamous Viking, Ivarr of Dublin, they've turned their gaze toward the desolate lands of Northern England and the jewel of York.

Inexplicably, Ælfwynn's also exposed to the south, where her detested cousin, Ælfweard, and uncle, King Edward, eye her position covetously, their ambitions clear to see.

This is the unknown story of Ælfwynn, the daughter of the Lady of the Mercians and the startling events of late 918 when family loyalty and betrayal marched hand in hand across lands only recently reclaimed by the Mercians from the Viking raider enemy. When kingdoms could be won or lost through treachery and fidelity, and when there was little love and even less honesty. When the words of a sword were heard far more loudly than those of a king or churchman, noble lady’s daughter or Viking raider.

The Earls of Mercia series.

The story of the last century before 1066, told through the eyes of the Earls of Mercia family, rivals to the more famous Earl Godwine.

From bestselling author MJ Porter comes the bloody and brutal tale of the mighty pagan king, Penda of Mercia.


Britain. AD632.

Penda, a warrior of immense renown, has much to prove if he is to rule the Mercian kingdom of his dead father and prevent the neighbouring king of Northumbria from claiming it.

Unexpectedly allying with the British kings, Penda races to battle the alliance of the Northumbrian king, unsure if his brother stands with him or against him as they seek battle glory for themselves and the right to rule gained through bloody conquest.

There will be a victor and a bloody loser, and a king will rise from the ashes of the great and terrible battle of Hædfeld.
The beginning of the second trilogy in MJ Porter's interconnected collection of action-packed historical stories about the Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

The Viking raiders sent three hundred warriors to kill one man. It was never going to be enough.
The Saxon kingdom of Mercia lies broken but not beaten, her alliance with King Alfred of Wessex in tatters.

Coelwulf, a fierce and bloody warrior with a distant claim to the kingship, hears whispers that Mercia has been betrayed by her feeble king and placed in the hands of his brutal enemy, the Viking raiders. But Coelwulf fears no man, especially not the Viking raiders sent to hunt him down.

To protect his kingdom, Coelwulf must travel to Repton, the heart of the kingdom of Mercia, where the Norse enemy have taken control of the Mercian kings' mausoleum. What he finds there will determine his fate and the future of Mercia.

The Last King is a thrilling historical action and adventure story, fictionalising the life of the last king of the kingdom of Mercia, Coelwulf II.

The start of a new historical 4-part series from MJ Porter focusing on events around the great battle of Brunanburh
** In the battle for power, there can be only one ruler.**

AD925
Athelstan is the king of the English, uniting the petty kingdoms of Wessex, Mercia, the Danish-held Five Boroughs and York following the sudden death of his father, King Edward.

His vision is to unite the realms of the Scots and the Welsh in a peace accord that will protect their borders from the marauding threat of the Norse Vikings.

Whilst seemingly craving peace and demanding loyalty with an imperium over every kingdom, Athelstan could dream of a much bigger prize.

But danger and betrayal surround his best intentions, namely from his overlooked stepbrother, Edwin, who conspires and vies for what he deems is his rightful place as England's king.

As ever, powerful men who wish to rule do not wish to be ruled, and Constantin of the Scots, Owain of Strathclyde, and Ealdred of Bamburghplot their revenge against the upstart English king, using any means necessary.

An epic story of kingsmanship that will set in motion the pivotal, bloody Battle of Brunanburh where allies have to be chosen wisely...

Lady Merryweather has had a shocking year. Apprehended for the murder of her husband the year before and only recently released, she hopes a trip away from London will allow her to grieve. The isolated but much loved Cragside Estate in North Northumberland, home of her friends, Lord and Lady Bradbury, holds special memories for her.

But, no sooner has she arrived than the body of one of the guests is found on the estate, and suspicion immediately turns on her. Perhaps there are no friendships to be found here, after all.

Released due to a lack of evidence, Lady Ella returns to Cragside only to discover a second murder has taken place in her absence and one she can’t possibly have committed.

Quickly realising that these new murders must be related to that of her beloved husband, Lady Merryweather sets out to solve the crime once and for all. But there are many who don’t want her to succeed, and as the number of murder victims increases, the possibility that she might well be the next victim can’t be ignored.

Journey to the 1930s Cragside Estate, to a period house party where no one is truly safe, and the estate is just as deadly as the people.

This is Mercia. The year is 757.
A king will fall. A king will rise.
But first, civil war will rage.

King Æthelbald's forty-year vice-like rule over Mercia has been rigid. But he lacks a legitimate heir despite his insatiable bedchamber antics.

Offa must stand hostage to his family’s good behaviour, when his father missteps in removing his mother from Æthelbald’s bed. Shockingly, his younger sister now replaces her.

But the king isn’t finished with his denigration of Offa’s noble House. When his parents are traitorously killed, Offa’s resentment grows, compounded by the ridicule heaped on him by King Æthelbald’s oathsworn warriors.

With the king’s health deteriorating, the matter of the succession becomes paramount. There are plenty who share a claim to the kingship.

Discord threatens to fracture the mighty realm, and those with sword and shield, seax and spear are prepared to risk it all to be the future king of Mercia.

The king is dead; for Mercia to survive, another must take his place.
Coelwulf, Mercia’s last king, is dead. His legacy and right to rule Western Mercia have been claimed by Alfred of Wessex, but all know Alfred was never to have Mercia. Neither were the Viking raiders, who now command the eastern-most parts of Mercia and the former kingdom of the East Angles.

Icel, the bastion of Mercia’s wars against Wessex and the Viking raiders, lies dying, but he refuses to abandon his beloved kingdom to her long-standing enemies.

Rudolf, the once-young ally of King Coelwulf the second, is summoned by Icel to attend upon him. Grudgingly, he arrives at Budworth, the task laid before him, audacious to say the least; rescue Coelwulf’s acknowledged heir, Æthelred, from Wessex, where he's held prisoner by King Alfred. To do so, Rudolf must prevail upon the dispersed oath-sworn warrior band of King Coelwulf, and all of them, aside from him, have ignored Icel's increasingly furious demands to attend upon him. If they won't obey Icel, then why should they listen to Rudolf?

The fate of Mercia’s survival rests in the hands of a man who should long have been in his grave, and Rudolf, a boy who’s become a man in the most trying of circumstances. They must forge Æthelred into the emblem of Mercian survival. Or die trying. But first they must rescue Æthelred from someone who's always pretended to be Mercia's ally, and is anything but.

Before Anne Boleyn stole the heart of a king and demanded marriage, another woman strove to wed an already married king of England. This is the story of Elfrida, who would become the first crowned Queen of England.

England is united under Edgar, but twenty years of uncertainty and a dwindling royal nursery have left the royal family vulnerable to extinction.

Edgar, a king at only 15 years old, has an acknowledged daughter and wife, but the dying ealdorman, Æthelwald, has commanded his wife to seek out the king, now in his early twenties. True to her husband’s wishes, Elfrida pursues the king, nervous of her husband’s intentions but trusting them all the same. When the king tries to make her his concubine, Elfrida refuses and withdraws from the court, only to find herself dreaming of the king, desiring his touch and presence.

When the king seeks her out again, she willingly follows him back to his court. She finds herself plunged into a world of politics and self-interest where her future happiness rests not only on the king loving her but also on the goodwill of others, with much to play for at the king’s court.

The First Queen of England evokes tenth-century England at its most enigmatic, shining a welcome light on England’s first crowned queen, a woman who would go on to accomplish much, but who must first steal the heart of an amorous king and earn her place at court, and overcome the obstacle of the outcome of not only the king’s second marriage but also his first.

Birmingham, England, 1943.

While the whine of the air raid sirens might no longer be rousing him from bed every night, a two-decade-old unsolved murder case will ensure Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is about to suffer more sleepless nights.

Young Robert McFarlane’s body was found outside the local church hall on 30th September 1923. But his cause of death was drowning, and he’d been missing for three days before his body was found. No one was ever arrested for the crime. No answers could ever be given to the grieving family. The unsolved case has haunted Mason ever since.

But, the chance discovery of another victim, with worrying parallels, sets Mason and his constable, O’Rourke, on a journey that will take them back over twenty-five years. They will have the chance to finally solve the case while all around them, the uncertainty of war continues, impossible to ignore.