Like many others I want to say thank you for many enjoyable hours reading your books and I’ve read most of them! With some authors it takes me a chapter or two to slip into their writing style, but with you just a page or two. I have just finished reading “Burning Land” and looking forward to the next installment of Uhtred’s saga. In your “Historical note” you discuss the “vikings” and what the revisionists want us to believe. Well, having lived in Norway for many years now, I can tell you that there are several points of view here about the vikings, but the one that is slowly taking hold is that the “vikings” were the outcasts and and the gangsters of the period. No one actually knows the origin and meaning of the word viking but what is known is that it was used as a swear word around 6-900ad and to be called a viking by Norwegians in those days was one of the worst things you could call a person. They were hated and feared just as much in Norway as in other countries. So, in other words, most of the settlers, weren’t vikings but just fairly ordinary peaceful people looking for work and land just like today’s immigrants. There is a very good book unfortunately probably not translated into English called “Worse than their reputation” by Yngvar Ustvedt, where he discusses the difference between the everyday Scandinavian and the so called vikings. Just wanted to express another thought for you. Rgds Stephen