Dear Mr. Cornwell, You are, without a doubt, my favorite author. My most-beloved are the Saxon Stories, Grail Quest series and the Arthur books. My Son and I are avid board gamers and stumbled on a great game you have probably heard of called Britannia. The game covers a thousand year timeline from the Roman invasion to the Norman Conquest starring several of the real characters you brought to life in your novels. I especially enjoyed your latest venture The Fort. Prior to its release, I put it on reserve at two of my local libraries (thinking if one gets it in before the other, I can read it sooner!). When I received the first call, I was right in the middle of Jeff Shaara’s The Glorious Cause. What a great lead-in! My Son blew through your book in a couple of days while I finished up Shaara’s. The Fort was terrific!! I love reading about obscure, little known history. It was little known to me anyway. While I’m on the Revolutionary War, we have some little known history here where I live in East Tennessee. Nearby is a place called Sycamore Shoals where a fort was built in the mid-1770s. The local militia, known as the Overmountain Men, gathered here and marched across the mountains to join up with men from the Carolinas. They met and engaged the British Loyalists at Kings Mountain in 1780. Anyway, the point of all this is it would make an interesting novel and should you decide to write about it you are welcome to stay at my house during your research as long as we can play a game of Britannia while you are here. I get to be the Danes!

Finally, I love the Sharp novels made for TV. What do we need to do to have more of your novels put on the small screen? Sean Bean will be starring in the upcoming HBO series A Game of Thrones this spring based on the GRR Martin novels. The series should be a big hit (it’s been described as Frodo meets the Sopranos), and if so, the genre will be launched. Consequently, Derfel, Uhtred, and/or Thomas of Hookton could become bigger than life. Other cable networks will be watching closely such as Showtime, Starz, AMC, FX and so forth. You would make a lot of money and fans, like me, would be in heaven! Take care and keep working on the next Uhtred chapter. I’m dying to find out how he re-takes Bebbanburg. But please, not too quickly; maybe three or four novels from now. Sincerely, Michael King Johnson City, TN