Hi Bernard, While working in Malaysia my wife called meto say there saw a new book by you out. I knew which one it was even though I didn’t even know the title at the tiem. “Buy it” was the excited response. So a shiny hardback copy of the Pale Horseman was waiting for me on my return to UK. I sat and read it from end to end in one sitting. Unsurprisingly I loved it and can’t wait until the next volume appears. However, there was one fly in the ointment. The publishers saw fit to add black and white (ok, lets call it dark grey) images of the battlefield at Ethandun to the pages refering to that event. Then printed over them. This did not exactly enhance the reading experience, more encrypt the text. I know the publishers do things without you knowing but this had the effect of stopping be dead in my tracks. Until I found a magnifying glass to help me decrypt the affected passages. Thankfully not too many. Has Uhtred found his ‘Harper’ in Pyrlig? I do hope so. What a wonderful character. By the way, Hogan died of a fever. Yes, I have all the Sharpe books and must say, as an ex-soldier myself, I find Sharpe immensely easy to identify with. Steve Navesey