Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I’d hate to use a commonplace phrase to begin my commentary here, but “I’ve never written to anyone like this before.” Ultimately, I find your books outstanding/overwhelming! I have read the Saxon Tales novels and am currently reading Enemy of God. I’m not sure who I’ve been routing for more: Uhtred or Derfel! These guys have the masculine hubris that I appreciate while also radiating emotion/expression in a more refined, subtle, and perhaps even feminine manner if I may say so. As an English teacher and canonical literature quasi-guru, I find your writing/literary aura to oscillate somewhere between J.R.R. Tolkien and Sir Walter Scott, and there have been a few times (when reading your books) where pride swelled up in me so much so that I could actually feel tears coming on (e.g., when Merlin saves Arthur and Derfel at Lugg Vale just in the nick of time). In the past, only Tolkien has had this effect on me, so you are the first living author who pulled at my emotions
like that! Thank you for your great contribution to a literary genre that Harold Bloom (incorrectly) says is dying out or long dead.
Please keep writing these rich, memorable novels!
Thank you,
Lance Novak
Simi Valley, CA