Hello Sir,

I’m  a big fan of The Last Kingdom.  My wife calls your books my crack cocaine as I am an addict,  currently in withdrawal waiting for book 10! So, over the course of reading the series and various shield wall encounters I wondered  whether a variation of Hannibal’s Cannae tactics would work for Uhtred in one of his tight spots against a superior force given his fascination for the Romans and how such a mighty empire could fall? I am thinking that as the two walls meet if the middle block deliberately fell back to give the appearance of a break and creating a gap to draw the attackers into. Once drawn in the attackers could be surrounded on 3 flanks and decimated.  It would take some practice and coordination to execute and perhaps placement of the stronger fighters in the flanking areas instead of the front row and might only work once! Perhaps useful against the swine head when the enemy are expected to penetrate – let them over penetrate and flank them? Anyway one for Uhtred to keep up his sleeve and please for the sake of my wife, daughter and cat, keep cooking up the regular doses of Uhtred for me :-)

Thanks & best regards,

Al