Dear Sir,
Recently my wife and I enjoyed watching the TV series The Last Kingdom, so much so that in one evening we watched 3 episodes back to back. I Googled the series for information and was pleasantly surprised to see it was an adaptation of your Saxon series (Which I had not read).
I have a number of your books and I wanted to share with you how I happened to become a fan back in the 90’s.
I’m from New Zealand and back in 91 I was working in London as a spotty faced porter at King Edward the VII hospital on Beaumont St, near Harley St. The Royal family are connected to the hospital and I’m proud to say that I have been formally introduced to the Queen at the official opening of a refurbished wing (name drop).
One of my duties as a porter was to work night shift at the front reception, even though the main doors are locked for the night.
It was a lonely job as one was not encouraged to venture upstairs and chat with the night nurses, rather we had to sit at one spot surrounded by spooky looking portraits.
It was amongst the Hospital Library that I discovered a hardback copy of Sharpes Waterloo which I devoured over the following week of night shift. From that day onwards I became a great fan of Mr Sharpe and I became deeply interested in the battle of Waterloo. I soon had the complete series of Shapes books which sadly is not conducive to a 21 year old backpacking around Europe.
I travelled to Edinburgh to view one of the captured eagles which was on display at the castle and I read numerous books on the subject and even spent my night shifts doodling away, copying from various paintings of the battle. I use to fancy myself as a keen artist back then.
From time to time I revisit reading about the subject and recently I purchased your book Waterloo as well as Andrew Roberts book Napoleon and Wellington.
Thank you for bringing history to life and for making it so exciting to read that it caused a 21 year old to have a passion for History that exists today.
Kind Regards
Heath Jones