Mr. Cornwell, thank you for the great novels you have written. You are my favorite author, and I appreciate the hard work and effort you pour into these books. My question is that the shield wall you refer to in your Saxon and Arthur novels, were they directly influenced by the Romans with the short swords, or was it common sense to line up lke that? I ask this because you constantly refer to the great Romans, whom left Britain with all of their skills in building and warfare. Was the shield wall a more medieval form of the phalanx? How did the Britains result to this as their form of fighting, because it seems history took a step back after the Romans left, and the Britons/Saxons had to start from the beginning in short sword warfare. Thomas