Hello again Bernard, As you may remember I have been thoroughly captivated by the first 2 Arthur books…& now only a few pages into Excalibur I am again knocked-over by your story-telling strategies. So stunned when Derfel travelled to far-eastern LLoegyr to see Aelle, only to find that Lancelot, Bors, & Arthur’s 2 rebel-sons were sitting at Aelle’s table alongside Cerdic. The mind begins to reel wondering ‘how will he get out of this one?’…Then, I find myself really liking Bors after all his assistance to the treacherous Lancelot, but recalled Arthur’s opinion of Bors much earlier in the trilogy when he said “unfair” in defence of Bor’s character being maligned. Apart from being a songwriter, I am also a Molluscan scientist & was curious where you picked up the information about the luminous secretions of ‘piddocks’ (pholadid bivalves)- the fluid that Merlin smears on Olwen the Silver to make her glow. Was this from historical sources (ie a practice actually performed in the past) or did you consult a scientific contact when constructing this part of the story ? Cheers….Darryl Potter (Australia)