Hello Mr Cornwell, may I just start off by saying that you are the best historical writer of all time and should be knighted, although maybe you already are being a descendant of Uhtred :-) I was just wondering if you could answer a couple of questions for me if you have time. The Uhtred character is quite ruthless compared to Derfel, was it more enjoyable to write Uhtred given that you can have a lot more fun with him than Derfel?

My second question is that you always seem to have a very likable Irish character as a companion to your main character being a Dubliner born and bred I find this wonderful. I was just wondering if this has something to do with the time you spent in Ireland? Please keep up the fantastic work (counting the days to Sword Song) Gearoid Mciomhar