Hello Bernard, congratulations on the new Sword Song novel, another terrific read. My young sons (9 and 7 years) have watched me devour your books and like all young boys love any stories involving Swords, Epic Battles and Vikings. So I started with the prologue for The Last Kingdom and they haven’t given me a night-off from reading it to them for the last week! Anyway, I have a couple more questions for you;

1. Will Uhtred move his story away from London in the next installment? I know it’s an important part of the story telling process to fit-in with the historical time-line, but I’m getting itchy feet for Uhtred – he’s spent too long ‘down South’.

2. There is a lot of interest in Beowulf at the moment (associated with the movie of the same name). I would most likely be wrong, but some sources would have the poem / tale being recorded mainly by the West Saxon’s during the 10th Century. It would be terrific for you to have some reference / indication to this in the next part of Uhtred’s tale. Thanks as always, Dean Tams (Cumbria, England).