Dear Mr. Cornwell,

Your books have provided countless hours of enjoyment over many years. While working, I listened to books on tape during my long commute.  Since retiring, I continue to read when I can steal the time. Since I never kept a record of the books I had read, I tend to pick up titles again,  that I may have read last year or 10 years ago. The surprise is that I can re-read one of your books in preference to reading most other author’s works for the first time. The big critic comment is that you write battle scenes better than anyone else ever.  While that may be true, my observation is that you write daily life better than anyone else.  You can take an average day in the life of … and make it interesting. You have twists, turns, and surprises that make your stories always hard to put down.  You could weave a story around a cookbook and that would become a must read. I can read just a single page from one of your novels that would take me hours to research and yet you publish thousands of pages on a regular basis.  I admire your talent. Within the past year, based on some letters I discovered, written by my maternal grandmother, I became interested in tracing my own family tree.  What a surprise. My grandmother was attempting to obtain a passport in 1971.  Apparently, she was having a hard time proving her birth, in 1897, so she was submitting family records to establish her as a U.S. citizen. I learned that her husband, my grandfather, had been adopted.  She gave details about my biological grandfather that I had previously not known. Using the new facts, I traced that family using Ancestry.com and even submitted a saliva sample for their DNA testing. Ancestry confirmed a close DNA match connecting me to members of the Ames family, the family said to be my biological heritage by my grandmother. Since then, I have been able to trace those ancestors back as far as 1092. The search became easier once my tree connected to high-profile, well-researched families. I found many lords and ladies plus a count and baroness or two. Come to find out that my 10th GG, Thomas Eames (early spelling of Ames) married Millicent Brewster who was the granddaughter of William Brewster II, Archbishop of York, and sister to William Brewster, well-known passenger on the Mayflower.  That makes me the 12th great grandson of the Archbishop and 10th great-nephew of the Mayflower elder. My 15th GG, Humphrey Brewster, is also the 15th GG of both Prince Charles and Lady Diana. Going back to the earlier centuries I found more than a dozen relatives who are listed as knights, many of which have heraldic shields associated with them.

I am currently reading/re-reading “Vagabond”.  Having my own family knights in the 1300’s, the stories have become even more interesting. A reference to the Archbishop of York caught my attention too, even though my connection there did not occur until the 1500’s. Reviewing the knights in my tree I try to imagine what their life may have been like.  Perhaps your stories may give an insight. I notice that, in many instances, their children were born either the same year as their death or the year prior.  Had any of those unions not have occurred, I would not be here today. One knight must have been able to tell a lot of stories for, if my information is correct, he lived to be 94 years old.  The dates could be wrong but if not, he might have been able to tell tales like Uhtred.

Thanks for your writing.  I hope you do not run out of material.

Donald W. Babcock