Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I am an avid reader of all of your books and found the most recent of these “The Flame Bearer” to be as gripping as any of your works, there is however an inaccuracy which I feel I must bring to your attention. I note on pages 4 it is stated, “The tide was rising, which meant that the current was running strongly northwards and the ships were battling their way south,” On page 222 it is stated, “We left on the slack water of low tide, but the flood began as we headed towards the sea. For the moment the current was against us, but once past the headlands we would turn north and the tide would help us.”
In the North Sea the flooding tide moves from north to south and the ebb tide south to north, this apparent reversal is a result of the very constricting affect of the Straights of Dover relative to the very open nature of the passage of water around the north of Scotland, thus the much greater part of the water moving from the Atlantic to the North Sea flows around this northern route causing this north to south flow on the flooding tide.
Yours most sincerely,
Harry Clark.