Dear Mr. Cornwell, I am a great fan of all of your books, and just wanted to say thank you for writing them before I go on. I’m currently writing an essay trying to analyse the impact of historical fiction on the academic study of history and your books will be one of (or possibly the only!) case study I use.Things I will probably cover include whether historical fiction adds to our knowledge by giving us more ‘flavour’ of the times and brings to life the period in question or whether it detracts because of so called poetic license, enforced changed or possible inaccuracies or modern day prejudices affecting the characters. Above all I’m looking to see whether it is a positive or negative influence, and I was wondering whether you had any thoughts yourself on the subject. The notes you have at the back of some of your books about how you have researched the subject have been very useful as well. Hopefully I’ve explained what I’m doing so it makes sense, I’ve been working on the essay today and my brain is a little fried! Anything you have to say would be helpful. Alisdair Boyles