Just finished The Last Kingdom, which is the first book of yours that I have read. I am no expert in the hisrotical period, nor even a true initiate, but your historical backgrounds have the ring of truth and gave me a flavor of the times. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, with the character Brida you seem to be throwing a sop to the politically correct feminists,or unconsciously interpolating, present day gender issues. You have done what you accuse the chroniclers of Edmund of doing with the later accounts of his death: twisting it for ideology sake. The idea of this early teen girl being given a mount in the Danish army, of successfully “insisting” on being admitted to Tatwine’s force, taking her place with the men at the tavern, etc., etc. is quite absurd. Notwithstanding, I read the book to the end and felt I was rewarded with a fierce yarn and some good history as well. Michael Walsh