Dear Mr Cornwell,
I am a big fan of your novels, and being proud of my Black Country heritage I have really enjoyed the Warrior Chronicles and was delighted to get a copy of “The Pagan Lord” today.
I am interested in place names and think the index is an excellent feature of your novels, and one in which they surpass other historical novels, which don’t help you place them in a geographical context.
However, I am sorry, but I think that there is an error in the place names index. I am actually from a place near Wolverhampton that is called Wednesfield and used to be Wodnesfeld(e) in Saxon – Viking times. In fact my school was called Woden Avenue CP and had a Viking longboat as its badge. The battle of Wodnesfeld was fought there.
In your index you say that Wodnesfeld was Wednesbury (in fact the same entry is printed twice in the list. I believe that you may have intended to show 2 place names (although I have not yet read the book), namely Wodnesfeld = Wednesfield, and Wodnesburg = Wednesbury. For the record, I married a red headed girl from Wodensburg.
I recall a history teacher taking us through the local names (including Teotenhale) and telling us that Wednesfield and Wednesbury were two of the few places in England to carry the Woden/Odin prefix because they were the last Viking strongholds to fall.
I hope you don’t mind me bringing this typo to your attention.
Kind Regards
Andy Crane
(now of Tunbridge wells, Kent)