Dear Bernard, I’m travelling through Australia at the moment and have brought the Last Kingdom and the Pale horseman with me and have read them both already, I love them now as much as the 1st time I’ve read them. One thing that I keep wondering about is why Wessex’s army/warriors seemed more formidable than the other English kingdoms? Wessex was never conquered, they resisted the vikings and won many battles such as Cynuit, Ethandun, Ashdown, Farham etc. whilst the other kingdoms fell much quicker. In your books and in the many documentaries I’ve seen it is stated that the Danes were better at warfare than the saxons and we learnt how to fight from them, but Wessex was strong enough to resist and eventually conquer the northern kingdom’s and I’d love to know why?. thanks for your time. Ian Parkhouse