Hello – I have read the first 5 Saxon Tales and am going to get my hands on the (new) 6th ASAP! Kudos to you – your books were recommended by a professor teaching early English history. I’m so very much impressed by your ability to meld research/history with a great plot and characters! You may find it amusing to know how much I (and many others, no doubt) identify with Uhtred. I am a 65-year-old woman who is under 5 feet 2 inches, so I don’t always get quite the respect that Uhtred commands, but reading about him has somehow given me a more powerful sense of self – I found myself snarling at a man who thought I should get out of his way at the grocery store (what happened to Old Ladies First???) and afterward realized I’d been “channeling” Uhtred. Probably the subconscious of most of us would like to go around with a long sword plus a short one, to threaten or murder anyone who got in our way! So keep those Uhtred books coming! (Thank you!)BTW, I realize that Osburn is a “Viking” name.

Ms. Osburn