I had just finished my second reading of the entire Patrick O’Brian Aubrey-Maturin series, was hungry for 1800 and found Hornblower too stilted. Stumbled across Sharpe’s Fortress as it came out, and spent the next two years combing bookstores to get the series in order. Now, if you wrote it, I’ve read it. But the best part is that my 15-year-old son doesn’t want to drink, doesn’t want to drive, but does want to wrestle me for each installment of the Saxon stories as they come out. You’ve brought us together around fascinating subjects that I’ve loved since I studied English history. Thank you–and you’re safe from my ever suggesting a story idea–yours are too good, too original, and too firmly syhched up with in what really happened. Rick Smead