Dear Bernard Cornwell, I've just read and very much enjoyed "Lords of the North", and thought it was time to express my appreciation for your work, which I've been reading for some years, notably the Grail Quest, Arthur books, and Stonehenge, as well as the Saxon series. I've always enjoyed historical fiction, especially about ancient times, a learned a lot of history therefrom. Your Saxon series is entertainingly filling in the Anglo-Saxon period, about which I've known little, though like you I'm certainly descended from these people. (My surname Main, according to a family history compiled by my grandfather and great-uncle, descends from the Duc du Maine, who accompanied William in 1066, and came to this continent with my ancestor Ezekiel Main, who emigrated to Connecticut in the 1600s. My middle and maternal ancestral name Kelley, according to research by my late uncle and prominent historian Robert Kelley, is a version of the common Celtic name found in north-central England. So I'm thoroughly rooted in that Sceptered Isle.) Your book inspired a delving into Wikipedia and other sources to learn more of Anglo-Saxon England, its history, culture and language, and especially the repeated aphorism "Wyrd bid ful araed," and the "Wanderer" poem from which it comes. A suggestion: whoever did the typography on the book, perhaps the Elliott Beard mentioned on the copyright page, could put in just a little more effort and find a real "edh" letter for this. What's printed is both jarringly poor design (obviously from a completely different face) and incorrect to boot: it's actually just the Anglo-Saxon version of lower-case "d", not "edh" at all; see . I don't know exactly what typeface is used in the book, but it might very well already have an "edh"; most modern fonts do. Clearly you're fond of this saying, which is is a kind of theme of the whole story, and thus likely to be repeated frequently; might as well get it right. (Of course, I know that as the author you have little or no control over such issues as the cover or even the name your book is published under -- which has always seemed to me must be a great annoyance -- but I don't suppose it would do any harm to complain that they got your text wrong. Now, a real letter "wynn" at the beginning would be another issue -- both hard to find and confusing to the ordinary reader; even scholars, I gather, use W instead.) I see there's yet another Saxon installment already in the pipeline, so I will certainly look forward to continuing the story of Uhtred and his friends, neighbors and -- to be sure -- enemies. Thanks for some great reads, and I wish you all continuing success. Andrew Main Santa Fe, N.M.