Dear Mr Cornwell, I first heard of you through my godmother, Harlé Jervis, who lived with my mother in the south of France. They had both met you, presumably at some social event, either at my mother’s house or one of their friends, maybe at Sybille Bedford’s or Eda Lord’s. you had given her one of your books and she found it terrific, telling me that I should pick up your books whenever and wherever I found them. Well I have religiously and found your books, like so many other people, riveting, a compulsive read and beautifully observed. your latest book, Azincourt, was a thumping good read, showing how merciless and intractable life , let alone warfare, was in the late mediaeval period. i finished it in two hours, burning my midnight candle so to speak. I picked it up because I love history and have the ‘honour’ so to speak, of having had no less than 46 (if not more!) ancestors who perished at the hands of the English at this seminal battle. I wait for your next one, also hoping one day, that one of my books can be as compulsively readable as yours! Kind regards Peter-Gabriel de Loriol