Hello Bernard,
I just finished the final installment of the Saxon Stories on Audible last night, and today I am moved to express my appreciation for Uhtred’s remarkable journey. He has been my constant companion through many sleepless nights, and now that the journey is done, I feel like I have lost a dear friend.
It is a marvel to me how you wove fiction with historical reality to create an astonishingly seamless story that never felt inauthentic or fanciful, never felt like it went too far. Sometimes Uhtred was at the heart of the historical action, but many times he remained on the periphery, a restraint that felt like a genuine life lived in turbulent times.
The final battle for Englaland was masterfully done. I was nearly sick with apprehension for Uhtred and Finan in the thick of it. But the decision to leave Uhtred to narrate Aethelstan’s victory from afar was sublime. Uhtred’s time was over. What a poignant realisation.
I have read Homer’s Iliad countless times – it is my favourite thing in all the world. I just love those vividly detailed battle scenes, unflinching in their grim ugliness, tragic and heroic, but above all else the humanity shines through it. When I first started listening to the Saxon Stories, I was struck by your battle scenes – there are strong Homeric resonances. I have wondered if you were influenced by The Iliad when you wrote those battle scenes?
Tonight, I will probably begin again from book one, because I am not yet ready to leave Uhtred’s world and I fear I will not find another story quite like Uhtred’s conflicted loyalties, amid the broader historical landscape of religious and cultural conflict.
So thank you for the many hours of gripping story-telling that kept me so enthralled and immersed in the world of Saxons and Danes that it conquered the everyday demons of anxiety, and made night times something I looked forward to instead of dreaded. My thanks also to the Audible narrators who both brought the world to life.
Wishing you and your family all the best,
Margaret Dean