Dear Mr Cornwell (or may I call you Bernard?), I have enjoyed reading a good number of the Sharpe’s series, often wondering how he and Patrick Harper are going to extricate themselves from the latest dilemma. You tell a good tale, neither rushed nor dawdling and full of fascinating detail. Anyway, I have a question for you. In “The Pale Horseman” (I have read the first two of the Saxon Series), Sven of the White Horse pisses on Asser’s habit. In the first chapter of the next book, given as an appetite whetter, one-eyed Sven gets pissed on as well. Is there historical evidence that this was a particularly Danish form of humiliating an opponent, or did you include it to show just how rough society was back then? I would be genuinely interested to know; please don’t think that I am taking the piss. John Merry