Mr. Cornwell, I confess I have not read any of your books, but I will be reading The Last Kingdom with great interest. I am an avid student of King Alfred – having dragged my wife to Mr. Morgan’s farm in Athelney, Egbert’s Stone and the folly at Stourhead, and the statue in Winchester – and have sketched a lengthy outline for a fictional account of Alfred’s actions in the first half of 878 from Twelfth Night to the baptism of Guthrum. Like most anyone who is not a professional writer but has a subject dear to his/her heart, I read this morning’s Wall St. Journal review of The Last Kingdom with a mixture of excitement that a very popular writer has returned Alfred to the limelight and chagrin at my own procrastination in not yet putting more pen to paper. Perhaps your work will provide the necessary impetus. Regardless of that and regardless of your characterization of him, thank you for bringing some richly-deserved attention back to Alfred the Great. Christopher Jackson