Dear Mr Cornwell,

Firstly I wanted to ask if you have heard of a Biological anthropologist and presenter called Alice Roberts? I bumped into her the other week at a campsite in Woolacombe North Devon and had a chat about your books.

I am mainly emailing to see if you can settle a little debate I’ve been having with people from Croyde, North Devon. The locals there swear blindly that the village of Croyde takes its name from a Viking raider called CRYDDA who settled in the area from around 794 and went on to become its ruler.

I have debated this for years now as the Vikings never settled in Devon and that our place names are Saxon and Celtic in origin (this is why we have so many names with Combe in it). King Alfred also built Pilton as a defensive Burh which is only a few miles away and it just does not seem feasible that we have a Viking place name in North Devon.

I know Lundy is thought to be old Norse for Puffin but many of the Welsh Islands also have Norse names but there is none on the welsh mainland.

Thanks for your time it is always very much appreciated.

Kind regards

Ian Parkhouse