Dear Bernard – Just a note to tell you how very much I enjoyed “The Last Kingdom” – truly another fantastic ‘tale of long ago’ rivaling the Warlord Chronicles. In your Historical Notes, you mention “consulting a host of secondary works” as sources for the period. I suspect one of which was Beowulf, but could another source possibly have been Monty Python? I couldn’t help but re-read the passage where King Edmund meets his fate and in my mind replace Edmund and the Danes with the Pythons – what a good laugh !! I half expected the pincushioned King to sit up and tell us he’s not quite dead yet! (Methinks the Author might have truly enjoyed writing that bit !). Also, I very much admire your use of such an obscure concept as the “sceadugengan” to bring us into the otherwordly portion of Uhtred’s heroic journey. P.S. Was great to read the March 22nd post on you BB by Dr. Richard Abels- I do believe I’ve seen him on TV’s History Channel on occasion. As always- Thank you for posting the first chapter of your upcoming work. Any plans yet for US or Canadian book tours? Best Regards, Kelly Dudgeon