Dear Bernard Cornwell, I am often surprised and intrigued by some of the factual historical snippets you include in your books – for instance I knew the welsh word for England is Lloegr but did not know before reading the Arthur novels that it translates as ‘lost lands’. I knew the French region Brittany was so named because of the influx of Britons in the post-Roman era but had never made the connection between the name of the adjacent region Normandy and the Norsemen who came to England and France until I read The Burning Land. What, if I may ask, have you discovered which has most intrigued you as you have researched your books?

Chris Davidson