Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I first entered a world of your making as a graduate student in Illinois, watching PBS’s broadcasts of the Sharpe’ Rifles series. Then, again, I streamed the BBC production of The Last Kingdom, continuing to follow it on Netflix. I so enjoyed both dramatizations! But only quite recently did I begin reading the Saxon Tales series of books on which the latter are based. I have so enjoyed your portrayals of the Saxon, Dane and Norse cultures of the period and the permeation of medieval Christian faith into them. I appreciated the earthy warrior humour, including about the religious conflicts! Further, I felt I was educated about the warfare of that period and its brutality. As one who has spent most of my working life in party politics, I was struck by how little has changed as to the extent to which political leaders are expected to be “gold givers” to their voters, supporters and colleagues in “the shield walls” of party politics! As with Saxon Tales, some are motivated by service to God or humankind, or are driven by a vision of what could be. But by and large, humankind are driven by gold, land, sex and family. When I was midway through reading Saxon Tales, I discovered I may descend from one of the Uhtreds. One of my dad’s maternal aunts served as a missionary with her husband in north India and in Kenya, from the late 1940s through the late 1970s. In one or the other of India or Kenya, my great aunt befriended a British ex-pat who was a Burke’s Peerage researcher who traced a connection of my dad’s maternal line of the Dunbars to the medieval Scottish royals and through them to one of the Uhtreds. It might even be true! Perhaps the highest compliment I can offer is to point to your powers of observation of human nature at its best and worst, enlightened and benighted, virtuous and crass, and heroic and cowardly. I look forward to starting your Arthurian series! With appreciation,
Russ,