Dear Mr Cornwell, I just read the excerpt from Burning Land – thought it was great, of course – and thought that the events transpired are of striking resemblance to the battle of Kingley Vale in West Sussex, where the locals (is it called a fyrd?) took on a large band of Norsemen and won. Is there anything to that? Also, regarding Azincourt, please forgive me for painting a picture of the scene. I heard a rumour that many of the archers were ill at the battle, that they had some sort of stomach virus which caused severe diarrhea and so the archers went in bare bottomed and just let nature take its course where they stood. Is this true? Thank you for providing countless hours of entertainment and sorry to disturb.

Michael