Mr. Cornwell:
After reading, and re-reading, Renault, Stewart, McCullough and O’Brien, I feared that I might not find anyone new to slack my thirst for historical fiction as have they. Then I stumbled on Uhtred. Now I am just one of the thousands waiting for the next chapter to be finished. While waiting, I have slogged through the cold mud of Brittany, Normandy and Gascony with Thomas. Having read somewhere that the Arthur series was among the author’s own favorites, I moved on, or back, to pre-Saxon England. How interesting that this work, that has the least basis in written history of those that I have read so far, feels to be one of the most real. Descriptions seem to pour forth so effortlessly and the narative flows so natually that the author simply must have been there. Thanks for taking us along!
I hope to stumble on you in a cafe someday as there is so much I would like to discuss with you. For example, I have found clues in your stories that suggest reasons that Christianity spread like the flu through iron age Europe that I had not before considered. Would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.
But for the moment I have a small request. I have found it not only frustrating, but also inexplicable, that more detailed maps, or in some cases any at all, are not included among the pages of your books. While reading Enemy of God for example, I referred countless times to the spare and bare map in The Winter King as no map was included in the former, only to find that the subject river, mountain, town or fortress could not be found. I so hunger for maps as richly detailed as your narative. For myself, it would signficantly enrich and inform the experience of riding with Uhtred.
Chris