Mr Cornwell,

Having acquired a strain of viral meningitis last summer, I received a copy of Death of Kings from a friend to while away the recovery time. Having not read anything by you previously (or much of anything by anybody else, for that matter) I mentioned the book to my dad, himself also a published author, prior to embarking upon it. He promptly sent me The Last Kingdom, chiefly (I suspect) for two reasons: one, to start the series from the beginning and two, because my family spent a week in Northumberland – the first time we had visited – as I was recovering. I had waxed lyrical to him about our trip to Bamburgh Castle and so he thought it entirely appropriate that I should read The Last Kingdom, er, first. I suspect a further reason he purchased it for me is because he lives but a stone’s throw from the site of the book’s dénouement. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for a terrific and deeply absorbing read. I have The Pale Horseman – a Christmas gift from my wife – primed and readied upon my bedside table, from where I will launch into it bodily from my place in the shield wall and hack its ankles away with my short sword before splitting it asunder with Carnage Wreaker, my blade. Figuratively speaking, of course. Ahem. Cheers!

Max Gee.