Dear Mr. Cornwell: I came across your website completely by accident; it must be prophetic, since your Arthurian series has been on my mind since I first read it many years ago. I was pleased to learn it was your favorite, and that your favorite character was Derfel. Reading your comments, I am glad you did not compress the beginning of that first book. I can never explain to others how, as a boy, the legends surrounding Arthur grew within me, just as I can't explain the resulting code it somehow instilled within me. Perhaps at heart it is just a sense of justice and the desire to defend it, but it seems more complex than that. Perhaps it's childish, but children do feel the smack of injustice much more keenly than adults, and of course, much of our childhood education seems bent on subverting the child's seemingly innate sense of honor and justice. I thoroughly enjoyed the contrast you drew between honor and religion: I previously could never put my finger on the conflict I felt between some of the seemingly dishonorable concepts urged by religious doctrines and my own sense of right and wrong. Isn't chivalry a much better model for conduct than that historically expressed by religion and politics? I can now proudly say that my own childish code of conduct remains fully intact. Though I can't explain it to others, and despite my everyday astonishment when people fail to possess it, it cheers me immensely cheered to see you express it so well in your stories. As a grown man, I work as a criminal defense attorney, and behind shield, beneath my cloak I defend the weak and innocent, and when I have to, I fight. Hard. You will never know how heartening it is to read as an adult those stories that I loved as a child, about great men, hard men, good or bad, but all unyielding, experienced enough to be afraid down to their very souls, but who stand nonetheless when they must. I was also surprised and charmed to see your section on writing, and to thank you for the encouragement that you give struggling writers. I will take your advice on the dissection of my favorite novels; despite the difficulties I have faced writing, better than anyone I know a great storyteller when I read him. Though I myself loved the Hornblower series as a boy, please take it as the ultimate compliment that I would prefer to model my own attempts on your work, which I dearly, dearly love. Cordially yours, David Suro