Hello Mister Cornwell,

Firstly, I would like to say what a privilege and absolute joy it has been to discover your work. I first discovered you back in 2015 when the adaptation of The Last Kingdom aired. I wouldn’t read the first book in the series until five or six months ago, and I regret not doing so earlier. I’ve not read proper in too long but now listen to audiobooks at work. In the last five months I have listened to the entire The Last Kingdom series and am currently a third of the way through Enemy of God. In my limited experience I consider Jonathan Keeble to have no equal in audiobook narration and am pleased whenever I hear him narrate one of your books.

Now as I have only read The Last Kingdom series and part of The Warlord Chronicles, I’ve only experience with your use of a singular first-person narrative. My first question is how do you decide on what perspective to write when you begin a story, and do you find it difficult to describe events the narrator wasn’t a part of or perhaps find a way to include the narrator in a believable way? And does the same difficulty apply when characterizing the other characters in the story only using the narrator’s knowledge of them?

I’ve also read that the only actor whose voice you picture in your head when writing a character is Sean Bean for Richard Sharpe. My last question is since The Last Kingdom programme aired, has it affected at all in subsequent books in the series? Do you now picture Alexander Dreymon when writing Uhtred? Thank you for your time.

Greetings from California,

Chris J.