Bernard, I have just finished reading ‘The Lords of the North’ and am looking forward to your fourth book in this series. As a teacher and writer (for Oxford University Press – totally different stuff to yo) I never grow tired of seeing a student achieve success. If a student tells me that their success was due to my advice and/or teaching it provides a boost for me to keep on teaching and writing with as much passion as I can muster. I shouldn’t really need those comments but I get such a huge kick from them and in turn the student benefits as my passion is renewed. With that process in mind I wanted to throw some positive comments your way – I’m sure you don’t need them but…. I tell my students that the most valuable commodity they have in their possession is time – the same goes for me. What I do have I try to spend wisely, and sometimes that is spent reading your books – please don’t take this the wrong way but I would say they provide great entertainment. I love characters who won’t lie down – who refuse to allow defeat to be part of their lives – I take the same approach myself. So please keep on writing and entertaining. Without characters like Sharpe, Dervel and Uhtred to remind me that you can’t keep a good man down where will I be! Many thanks, Paul.