Dear Mr Cornwell, This comes from an enthusiastic reader of your books. I particularly admire your fluent story-telling which never trips the reader up. I dont think I have ever had to go back and re-read a sentence because it wasnt clear I have re-read lots of the books, though. Can I be allowed a little niggle? Something bothered me the first time I read The Burning Land, so on a re-read I started making a note of where it occurs. Its not much, a small grammar point, but something Uhtred would have known! P. 31, l. 10: Finan alone accompanied Steapa, Skade and I into the monastery. P. 136, l.16: Nor did they notice Finan and I as we emerged into the street behind the tavern. P. 202, l. 19 & the difference between Alfred and I had been his conviction that fate was progress & P. 263, l.26: &and so she [Æthelflæd] she stood with Ralla, Finan and I on the steering platform & It jars particularly coming from Uhtred it sounds as if he is trying to be genteel (Uhtred! Genteel!), or even posh, saying I where it should be me because someone has told him that its better English. But the change in pronouns as objects and after prepositions is about the only remnant of Saxon cases that we still have in modern English. If you read the sentences leaving out the other names you realise immediately that it has to be me. There is absolutely no need to reply to this. I dont want to hold up Uhtreds progress towards Bamburgh. Yours sincerely, Jenny Wood (Bristol, UK)