Dear Bernard Cornwell, By way of introduction, I am an emeritus, my love was always mediaeval literature, and I wrote my dissertation, years ago now, on mediaeval poetics. And I have read all my life, many things in all fields as long as I find them well written. I have just finished Chapter 10 in Lords of the North, and to tell you the truth, it is some of the best writing I have read since that beautiful scene in “Njals Saga” where Njal and his wife are found as if asleep under the leather blanket after the fire. The fight between Kjaertan and Ragnar is as well thought through as anything I have ever seen, and the miracle of Beocca in the healing of Thyra is absolutely superb, rarely does it happen to me, but I wept and wept when I read it. I am now seventy-eight, I have read much, but this writing is tops in style, in content, and in the grasp of the mediaeval mind, and still my words do not capture the beauty of these scenes. Thank you so much. Respectfully, John Poynter