Dear Mr. Cornwell, This is just to say how much I’ve enjoyed The Pale Horseman. Unfortunately I’ve been hospitalised for many weeks but I’ve been attempting to trace my ancestry and by many routes have found that it goes back to a Dane,Mault who founded Maltby in Yorkshire, in 865a.d. Brought up on Alfred Duggan’s good novels I had sort of felt that the Anglo-Saxons were ‘goodies’ and the Danes ‘baddies’.Indeed that was my main reason for starting a heptarchy penny collection. Now that I read Uhtred’s story I can sympathise, but it also leads to mixed feelings about this period now: I shall be reading runes next! What a brilliant character creation! congratulations and thanks! Yours sincerely. Dr. Michael Maltby Gilmore. BA,BSc,BVetMed,MRCVS