Dear Mr Cornwell

I have been an avid follower of your books since Sharpe’s Eagle first came out in paperback nearly 40 years ago. Throughout that time I have been serving in the British Army although despite coming from good greenjacket stock I only spent 3 months as a rifleman myself.

Your Uhtred books continue to entertain and I have recently traced my own ancestry back to Prince (later King) Edmund, his parents Edward and Eadgifu, and his grandfather Alfred the Great, who is my 36th great grandfather. This has added another dimension of interest!  There is also via another branch an Uhtred in there, but being born in 1120 this is clearly not our hero.

I do wonder though whether in Sword of Kings (which I have just finished for the second time) you might have got your London gates a little bit mixed up? Cripplegate was the gate in the fort – I got married for the first time in St Giles-without-Cripplegate church, as did Oliver Cromwell, but that’s another story – which Uhtred and Finan can see in the distant west. From your description I think the gate where the battle to place is actually Bishopsgate, although I don’t believe it was known by that name in 10th century London.

Could I be right?

Yours sincerely

Rick Keeson