Dear Mr Cornwell My daughter and I both loved reading the Arthur books and to get over the difficulties of pronouncing the sometimes unpronounceable names, we simply referred to the characters as “Bert”. The Arthur books have therefore now become, for us, the “Bert” books. Could I just also add how very much I have enjoyed watching the Sharpe series (recently bought on dvd). I wonder, did the casting for the main roles match up to your own mental image of them when you were writing the stories? I don’t know how you manage to write as many books covering different periods of history as you do – you have my unmitigated admiration! With kind regards Sue Young.