Mr Cornwell, I started reading your Sharpe books a long time ago, and have enjoyed all your other literary works, my favourite being the Warlord Trilogy. I have a question concerning these books. Are the numbers you describe in terms of armies/warbands fairly accurate to the time? I know that the Dark Ages weren’t recorded well, but did you take these rough numbers from sources or were they based upon your own judgement? On a sidenote, after listening to your choices on R4’s Desert Island Discs I wondered which other songs from the Music Of Sharpe are your favourite, I love them all to pieces even though they clash with many of my other musical tastes! Many thanks, and keep up the excellent work, you are one of few historical authors able to engage heart and mind, and take one back to schoolboy historical fantasies once again! Benjie Groom