Good morning, Have just finished another of your Sharpe books and I have the impression you are steeped in 19th. century history/politics—–perhaps you have the answer to a question that has puzzled me for some time: Why didn’t the Royal Navy seize Alaska during the Crimean War? Prior wars were used to expand the British Empire[Cape Colony, Ceylon, Canada,etc.]. Some might say the British statesmen knew that would antagonize Americans but why would distant Alaska be more of an irritant than the colonies strung along the St. Lawrence and the virtually empty West? No doubt there is a book lurking in the answer but unfortunately I lack the skill to create it. I did appreciate your quotation of Lincoln’s sardonic comment about the town with two rather than one lawyer! regards, Graham Watson