Dear Mr Cornwell,

no reason to say much about your novels; I follow the grail quest, know Uthred of Bebbanburg well and have met Sharpe as well as the Fort. It took me some time of thinking why a falcon should be called calade; wouldn’t  it be better for some readers to get a clue what you meant? Still, maybe you wanted to instigate curiousity. This is what found most helpful in the end:

http://www.la-definition.fr/definition/calade // http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Calade  // Could a native speaker of English have known at once?

I do hope you will continue writing for quite a time. All the best!

Martin Wolny, 59, Germany