Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I’m a big fan of the Sharpe novels and have read others among your work but just recently started reading the Saxon Tales. Love them.  The History channel show Vikings put me in the mood.  These are the first of your non-Sharpes that I find every bit as good as those and Uhtred is the first protagonist of yours I’ve loved as much as Sharpe. Kind of glad I didn’t get into these earlier because it’s so nice to have a bunch of them already in place to go though one after the other. I’ve always read straight history as well and your brand of thoroughly researched historic adventure fiction, besides being great reads, provide so much great information that most popular straight history doesn’t. I’ve enjoyed reading about the Napoleonic wars since I was a teen but never really understood the details of how infantry squares work until I read the Sharpe novels. That helps so much and the Saxon Tales do the same thing for  shield wall battles,not to mention exploring an entire complex era that
generally gets passed over pretty quickly.  Great series. Congrats.
Felice Sage