Dear Sir, I must congratulate you on a (so far) fantastic book. I am currently reading The Lords of the North and am just past page 88. I think that last night, while reading this book, I actually burst out laughing at one particular sentence. The sentence was to do with the carrying of St Cuthberts coffin, which was covered by a fine green cloth, and the discription of a raven flying overhead and “splattering the cloth with shit”. It was just the way it was written, I couldn’t stop laughing, it was such a random description of a seemingly unimportant event. It’s genius and for some reason the image of a lone raven coming out of nowhere and covering this cloth with shit and the look of horror on the priests faces just has me in stitches. I congratulate you on a most masterfull piece of literature. If anyone is interested it is the middle of P88 of the UK hardback version. Great. Edward May