Book excerpt: On the way, conventional Dark Age history and Arthurian legends are turned upside down. A bitter loss changes this young shepherd and huntsman into a ruthless and vengeful killer who eliminates the Saxon menace along the southern shores and restores order and prosperity to a wide tract of Britain while always grieving. This is the history of a young leader and his use of unusual means to kill and conquer including his massive and terrible Wild White bull “Doomsday”, which he rescued from the Great Forest of the Weald as a young calf, and which hunts men and wolves alongside his master. The legendary figures of Ambrosius Aurelianus and his son Arturus, members of a feckless British aristocracy seemingly impotent in the face of the internal and external threats to the British people, fall under his power and he has to contend with the greedy courtesan Gwenhwyfar and the sinister and devious Morgan who becomes his captive and informer. Other women help him to succeed as skirmishes and set piece battles rapidly follow each other. Bullmaster sees much of southern Britain transformed from a failing post-Roman province to a thriving community in which the British people grasp the opportunity to defend themselves which Aelius offers them.