Dear Bernard,
This is just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed reading the latest novel in the saga of the life of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. I have devoured each book in the series over the past 9 years and eagerly await the next. You’ve re-awakened a real interest in that part of our history that is so shrouded in myth and legend, and yet so fascinating in that it covers the faltering steps the Anglo-Saxons took in the founding of England.
Since first discovering your writing in the Sharpe series, I’ve been fascinated by how you weave fictional characters and storylines around historical battles and characters.
As always, your latest novel The Pagan Lord does this superbly and kept me turning page after page to the end. I received this latest instalment as a Christmas present and finished it this evening. Though I wish with all my heart that Uhtred had really lived, I’ve been fascinated after each book to do a little basic research on several of the actual historical characters, thus enhancing my own historical education. Any writer of historical fiction that excites the reader to go on to further reading is certainly doing something much wider than providing entertainment.
Thank you once again, & bring on Uhtred’s next adventure.
Doug Roper
Cambridge