Bernard, Please forgive my impertinence. I enlisted shortly after Richard Sharpe and, in spirit at least, without ever becoming a chosen man, have been a rifleman of his company since the day he was first published. My son, now a third year English undergrad, fully intends to gain a commission in the latest incarnation of the 95th ( you will be aware that The Royal Green Jackets are to be amalgamated yet again) "The Rifles" , after graduation. It is not a surprise, I have seen a poster of Sean Bean, in costume, on an RGJ recruiting caravan. And so when he provided his parent with the annual Christmas tribute last year, "The Last Kingdom", he must have felt on safe ground. How right he was. But, here I come to my impertinence. I found no flaw, tactically or historically in Sharpe, but am ashamed to confess that I find fault, just very trivial fault, in Uhtred's tale, and in which I thought that you might possibly find interest. In the period through which Uhtred battles, in Western Europe there existed broadly two groups of faith. The old and the new. The old range from druids to Thor with allsorts in between. The new is Christianity. The only form of Christianity in Western Europe at that time is what we describe today as Roman Catholicism. Bear with me, we are nearly there. The Roman Church does not and never has had "services". If Uhtred blunders into a religious gathering it is a Mass, or possibly a Benediction. Without the least bigotry, "services" are for "Prods" of all sects, but whose first manifestation is Martin Luther, in about another 700 years. It's hardly going to change anything of huge import, but I thought that you'd want to get it right. As an aside, I used the first volume to assist me to encourage a deeply depressed suicide, a young widow, to look elsewhere than inside herself. Just something to direct her mind away from her ills. She would never previously have read anything other than "Cosmopolitan" type drivel. She struggled at first, but became hooked and if Uhtred wasn't a solution, he helped just a little to help her pass the darker nights. I'll probably never write, I never soldiered to any effect, but you've brought much pleasure to my mother ( 80 odd and who did soldier) to me and to my son. Yours Sincerely, Michael Mitchell
You're not the first person to chide me for this, and I'd hate to get it wrong, but I don't think I have. The word service was used for church ritual gatherings as early as 1100 when no Prod was ever dreamt of. It was used heavily and frequently throughout the (Roman Catholic) middle ages. It might well have fallen out of use in the Catholic church since the Reformation, but I have dozens of sources for it's archaic use so, I fear, I shall go on using what is a very serviceable word. I do hope your young friend is better.