Dear Sir,
I don’t usually write to Authors, but then: I don’t usually read so many books by the same Author! Having read 75% of the Sharpe stories (which brought that Age alive so wonderfully), I turned my attention to Uhtred… What absolutely fascinating stories!!!
Then with all of the Uhtred stories completed, I moved on to Thomas Of Hookton, and like the Sharpe and Uhtred stories, I couldn’t put t”The Grail Quest” books down, often reading for a couple of hours between 2am and 4am (by torchlight so that I didn’t awaken me wife!).
Now I’m about to move on to the “Starbuck Chronicles”; I have no doubt whatsoever that they will be excellent stories, and whilst I will not be setting my alarm clock in order to wake up at 2am tomorrow morning, the chances of waking are quite high, and I therefore look forward to getting to know the good Captain!
So, Sir: this is just a small Note to say “Thank you”! Thank you for the hours of research that obviously goes into each book. Thank you for using your Imagination so creatively. Thank you for bringing to life segments of History that many of us have – until now – pushed into the dark dusty recesses of our Minds! Thank you for writing such wonderful stories!
I believe there are some new Sharpe stories coming soon; wonderful! However, I hope we haven’t heard the last of Uhtred (There has to be at least one more story which sees Uhtred successful win back his heritage!), but I also hope we haven’t heard the last of Sir Thomas.
One other matter: one of the “sub-themes” threaded into both Uhtred and Thomas’s stories (I’ve noticed) is the story of the development of The Church in England. I assume you’ve at least carried out some basic research in order to weave this into your stories, but if you haven’t well: you certainly make it sound plausible! I wont necessarily quote you when I next write a thesis on the Church’s development in England, but such a sub-theme certainly adds character and ‘colour’ to the main plot! Thank you for doing that!
As for Captain Starbuck, well: the local bookshop in Upper Hutt only had books Two and Four; I will encourage them to get books One and Three onto their shelves as soon as possible…
Thank you again for your wonderful stories, and I wish you all the very best for the future!
Kind regards,
(Rev’d) Lance Kevey
Wellington
New Zealand
FOOTNOTE: In due course, I plan to get back to Sharpe, and to finish reading the whole Series!