A belated Christmas present for the George RR Martin fans amoung you: just in case any of you missed it, the author has posted a new chapter from The Winds of Winter, the yet-to-be-published sixth novel in his bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, on his website.

According to Martin, the events in the chapter take place before some of the chapters at the end of the fifth novel in the sequence, A Dance with Dragons. The new chapter is an update to Theon Greyjoy's story – a character who went through the ringer in Dance, and appears to be in an only slightly improved situation here.

In little over 6,000 words, the extract gives us a captive hanging six feet above the ground in handcuffs, political intrigue, treachery, a chopped off arm and a handful of deaths. It's vintage Martin, and has me fervently hoping that the author is proceeding as speedily with the rest of the tale.

There is, as yet, no publication date for The Winds of Winter, but followers of Martin's long-running, bloody series will be praying he manages to turn it around a little quicker than A Dance with Dragons, which took him six years to complete.