Dear Mr Cornwell, I’ve just finished “The Lords of the North” and am looking forward to “Sword Song” – have you a date for the UK release yet? A while ago I set myself a small task – to read all the Sharpe novels in chronological order, fortunately my job requires me to move around a lot – I’ve visited an amazing assortment, of often tiny village and as well as larger town libraries. I’ve also read the Arthur series and Stonehenge. I’m a former professional archaeologist, my undergraduate dissertation was on Saxon Hampshire and I used to think of myself as a bit of an expert on immediate post Roman period (I don’t like to call it Arthurian), so you wouldn’t be surprised if I said that I’m always conscious of any historical accuracies. Leaving aside the medieval knights of the round table being included in the Arthur series – which I can understand why you did so, I have found almost no anachronisms in any of your books, whilst the sense of time and place is always exactly as I would have pictured. In fact I recently visited Bratton Castle (Ethandun) and found myself explaining the battle to my 18 year old daughter as if that was exactly what had happened. But to the point of this email. I’ve tracked my paternal line back to High Hesket, between Carlisle and Penrith. My surname was Ousby up until the mid 1700s, and the spelling in the 1600s was Owzby. A neighbouring village to Hesket has the name Ousby – so no need to guess where the surname comes from. However as you will appreciate, the ‘by’ ending is typically Scandinavian. My colouring is ‘Nordic’ and my grandfather had a congenital condition whereby the tendons in his fingers tighten causing the fingers to permanently ‘clench’, which is apparently a Scandinavian hereditary condition. So I like to think of myself being a 30th generation Viking – which is ironic as I now live in Winchester. Going back to the village of Ousby, the placename derives from “Ulfr’s village”. So imagine my delight when Ulf appears as a minor Danish lord in “The Lords of the North”. Please could you confirm whether you plucked Ulf out of the air (as a typical Danish name), or whether the name was chosen deliberately. I’ve never had an ancestor of mine appear in a book before! Looking forward to reading Sword Song (before I move onto the Grail Quest series). Best wishes Mark