A good friend we met on a Viking River Cruise back in 2009 put me on to your writing, initially the Last Kingdom series, and I have been hooked ever since.  After retiring six years ago, I have devoted myself to tracking down copies of that series plus other stand alone novels.  I have read 12 total including six of the Last Kingdom and have three or four others calling my name. (I also watched the TV series).   Every book has held my attention from start to finish except the Fort.  For me, this book was a change from the others because I read about half over a two month period and then gave up.  Please do not take this as anything more than a comment about the Fort only because I am presently engrossed in Stonehenge.  I had learned that Paul Revere was not the hero we learned about in school after reading Paul Revere’s Ride by David Fischer.  Longfellow did no favors for students of US history with his poem.

Anyway, the stories of Viking travels to Great Britain are fascinating.  I am half Swedish and speak the language, half Danish, find many town names in the UK with Scandinavian roots, and have traveled to Scandinavia on several occasions. A history I read several years ago claimed that original Swedes were much shorter than what one sees in films, but dark haired with fair skin.  Uhtred meets that description in the TV series and old buildings visited from the 17th and 18th centuries seem to bear out people were short. Will there be any more episodes in the TV series?

I have rambled on enough.  FYI, I have enjoyed several fiction and non fiction books on the Knights Templar .  Do not interpret this as anything more than sharing a reading topic.  I also like Steve Berry, Tolkien, George Martin, Frank Herbert (I met him at the University of Washington in the early 70s, but that is a different story), and other authors of historical novels.  My friend encourages me to track down Sharpe novels but that will be a project after the Last Kingdom.  Please keep those stories coming.

Ron