Dear Bernard or Mr Cornwell – or Lord…

I’ve never written fan mail before, and I never thought a story of a war lord would be the reason why I, just about reaching 41 years, begin to. The reason why I need to express my gratitude over your penmanship and my joy over the stories told in the Last Kingdom is that, in some way, it’s saving my life. I have a chronic illness and live in chronic pain, I’m a single mom, and faith has it that just before my illness showed its ugly face, I moved from Alaska back to Denmark, leaving my network behind. One of the very wonderful people I met in Alaska, whom I’m proud to call one of my closest friends – maybe we’re like Uhtred and Finnan – introduced me to the series, and as we both share life experiences of childhoods not providing what they ought but a whole heap of what should’ve never happen, as we both struggle with motherhood and chronic pain, we find so much joy in Uhtred’s character. One might think, that two moms in the middle of life would have very little in common with him, but in fact we share a lot of his character traits. “Wyrd bið ful āræd. Fate is inexorable.” We laugh at this. We laugh that the Gods must love us dearly to test our limits daily. We laugh at the many observations about religion. We laugh and cry, and it keeps us alive. It’s makes us forget the pain, soldier on, cook the dinner, do the laundry, soldier on, and we’re listening or reading as if we were just two normal woman with a great interest in historic novels.

Thank you!

Sissel