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Good Morning Bernard Just a quick note to tell you how much I have enjoyed reading each and every Sharpe's book .... have worked thru the Arthur books and several of the GRAIL QUEST as well ... Please let me encourage you to keep the wonderful stories coming ... I buy at the local Chapters Bookstore here in Canada ... sometimes I have to make them order a book in ... but then ... they order 2 or 3 of the book and when I return to pick up my copy ... the other copies they had brought in are gone already ... so there ya go .. Thanks again David Milmine Hamilton, Ontario Canada

Dear Mr Cornwell. I just want to say a big thank you for the pleasure you have given me these past few months. It was luck really. I was walking around Greenwich market, and came across Stonehenge. It was there for £1, so I couldnt say no. I read it in about a week, and then moved onto the Saxon Series. Now I had never really read that much before, but I cant seem to stop reading your books! I finished Lords of the North, and am now reading Vagabond. Im going on holiday in a few weeks, so will be buying the Warlord Series to read. I must be reading about a book a week. I guess I am quite lucky, being a late discoverer of yours, as I have so much more to read, which excites me greatly. However, I still feel I am going through them too quickly! Thanks again, and I cant wait for the 4th book in the Saxon Series. Charles

Hi, Im 17 and in love with history, I just finished all 3 books in the Saxon series in 5 days, I was just unable to put the books down, cant wait till the next one comes out. Keep up the good work and I will keep reading them when they come.
Jericho Smith

Dear Mr Cornwell, for a long time I lost faith in reading fiction books, as there just wasn't anything I fancied looking at. Then my brother gave me one of your 'Sharpe' books for my birthday and I was hooked! I have since collected and read ALL your works (I must have read the grail quest at least 6 or 7 times now!)and I just wanted to say thank you so much for the enjoyment you have given me. Yours in anticipation of future publications, John

I signed up for the HNS Conference specifically because I read that you would be speaking. I was not disappointed. Indeed, you exceeded my expectations. I am writing to thank you for the great advice, insight, and perspective, all leavened with humor, that you provided to we fledgling scribblers. My next challenge as a writer is to apply your good counsel to my novel, which, should the gods smile, is in its absolute final rewrite. I also want to thank you purely as a reader. All your days of writing from 5AM to 5PM have brought me considerable joy and pleasure over the years. I am now having a great time getting lost in The Pale Horseman and look forward to reading the rest of your Saxon series. And one final thank you. Would you please pass on my thanks to the lovely lady you refer to as the blonde from Pennsylvania. For having lured you across the ocean, legions of readers and writers owe her our gratitude. Rick Spilman

Dear Mr Cornwell I began reading your Sharpe chronicles many years ago and used to wait anxiously for the publication of the next. Thank you for introducing me to the fascination of Peninsular War history. I live in Australia and although we have not had the pleasure of having the Sharpe series shown on TV here, I have been buying the DVDs as they are released. My favourite Sharpe books are Enemy and Waterloo. I am glad that you have your own website and that it was not necessary to trawl through Google to find you! Best wishes, Janelle Gerke.

hi just a note to say that I have also read The Whale Road by Robert Low and the start is a bit slow but it's a good book once you have got past the start! A.S

I was thrilled to see the Sword Song excerpt posted. When I saw the cover art and started reading, I first thought 'Battle of Benfleet', but I saw that Uhtred is 28, and there's 16 years between Ethandun and Benfleet. Maybe at the end of the book? Oh, well- don't hurry too much. I say 'nuts' to Starbuck; keep writing more Saxon stories! As much as I enjoyed the Arthur books, the Saxon stories feel much more grounded in a historical reality, and I think that your familiarity with Old English really comes through in the idioms. The first person narrative is fantastic.
Eric

Dear Bernard Cornwell, ***On 23 May, 2007, Alan Frantz asked some questions about your use of British vs American English language, particularly related to the use of the subjunctive. One of the examples he used was *Eadred proposed that we formed an army and marched it across the hills to capture Eoferwic.* Alan commented *I would normally expect form and march.* *You have two similar usages of past tense that seem odd to me. Perhaps they are an early English subjunctive, I don t know, I m not a language historian. Or perhaps they are a British style, and just unfamiliar to me.* *** Your response on this point was * As for the vocabulary, sorry, but I was raised and educated in Britain and so use a British English, about which I am unrepentant.* ***I think both of you are right, in different ways. From my position as an Australian, probably closer to British than American English and with some knowledge of linguistics, grammar and teaching English language, I think this is an issue of formal and informal usage, rather than British or American language use. ***The use of the subjunctive has pretty much died out in informal English (I am one of the few people I know who uses it). It is also dying out in formal (including written) English. I dont know enough to comment on the use of the subjunctive, if it existed, in Anglo-Saxon. Perhaps I should get back to Chaucer, who was later, but retained some of the structures. ***The subjunctive, as we have it now in English, may have been one of the consequences of the codification of English grammar according to Latin, rather than native English rules in the 17th and 18th centuries. ***So I think it is appropriate for Bernard Cornwell to use a non-subjunctive construction in British English in an Anglo-Saxon saga and popular novel, and equally appropriate for a reader to identify this as a possible aberration from formal grammar. This is particularly so if, as I suspect, Alan Frantz has learnt English formally, as a non-native speaker. ***I hope this is of some help and/or interest to both of you and I apologise if my comments are either wrong or cause offence, or seem totally prattish. Elizabeth, Canberra, Australia

Hi, Mr. Cornwell. This is just to let you know how much I have enjoyed reading The Starbuck Chronicles, The Grail Quest novels, The Saxon Stories and The Arthur Books. I was introduced to your novels through the Sharpe series of films, and I am looking forward to the release of Sword Song later this year. I spent a number of years in Northumberland, and visited Bamburgh, Durham and Alnwick many times. I suspect that is why I enjoyed the Saxon Stories so much. Thank you. Richard Fenwick