Dear Bernard Cornwell(my favourite author), I’m slightly disappointed to learn that your next book will be about Uhtred and the death of Alfred and the events that followed this. Why am I disappointed? well it’s because these are such wonderful books and I had thought after the way The Burning Land ended that the next one would be about Uhtred’s pursuit of Haestan and the sieges that followed in Buttington and Chester and then the subsequent raiding the vikings did in the Welsh kingdom of their former ally Anarwd ap Rhodri.I really liked how from a minor character Haestan became a recurring nemesis to Uhtred and it would be a shame if their final reckoning has been skipped over.Since I enjoy this series so much I hope that longevity is a family trait with Uhtred and that his uncle will have a long life but not a happy one before Uhtred eventually fights his way north to claim his birthright and bloody vengeance. I have recently re-read all five and I’m enjoying how the hints from the earlier books are coming to fruition i.e Uhtred’s woman of gold,the cause of Uhtred’s dislike of his eldest son and hopefully in the future how is daughter becomes a mother of kings and his second son makes him proud.Lastly I noticed in the opening of The Last Kingdom that Uhtred writes ‘I dream, and know that one day I will take back the land from those who stole it from me’ which I thought implies he hasn’t captured Bebbanburg yet but by the time of The Lords of The North he seems to be living there, does he take it back between writing these?also he writes ‘He was my king and all that I have I owe to him. The food that I eat,the hall where I live and the swords of my men, all came from Alfred, my king, who hated me.’ From reading the books so far I feel Alfred dislikes Uhtred but felt that he had a grudging respect for him, does something happen between them in Alfred’s last years to cause this hatred? I’m guessing Uhtred relationship with Aethelflaed wouldn’t go down well! Apologies for such a long message and I hope writing these books gives you as much pleasure as it does to me reading them,hopefully it will be a 10-12 book series and that a extract from the next book will be up soon. Thank you, Rhun (please give Pyrlig and Beocca long lives!)