Dear sir, As ever I am a fan of your work. (Sharpe and Starbuck are the best, I LOVE your Viking works as well.) Ive often told people youve inspired me to write. I was just wondering which authors influenced you?

Also, I know you love Ireland as well, and was wondering if you could tell me, if the old anti-English song, By the rising of the moon, was about or penned during the rebellion of 1798? In my research on this subject I found it was published in 1866, but was it passed down before that?

Lastly in the American Civil War (I should know this because Im a re-enactor), but was a regiment or a battalion larger? And by how much? I had to smile the other day when I watched an interview of you on youtube; you seemed to be a British Hemingway or William Faulkner! Warm regards this winter, Adam Azzalino