Bulletin Board

I'm trying to read the series in order and would just like to say how much I've enjoyed Sharpe's Eagle in particular - the best yet as far as I'm concerned - first class. Steve Malpas

My english is terrible, I'm brasilian,i just like to say that Arthur Books are incredible and i love read your books!
Izabel Barrizon

Dear Bernard, both my son (Henry - 6yrs old) and I love your Sharpe series and I have just finished Uhtred's latest. Loved the ending! I can't wait to read others in the series. Many thanks for all the hours of pleasurable reading you have provided for me. Dean Campbell (Casino, Australia)

Dear Bernard, thank you for the books you have written so far & long may you continue to write. You have a rare & great talent not only to take actual periods of history & turn them into a believable story,you also create low born characters & put them into the centre of the action.This enables us the reader to see history unfold from the ordinary persons perspective & what the decisions of the elete few had for the many.Your writing has awakened my childhood interest in history.I am disabled & cannot read in the normal way,I "read your audio books".I always wait for the unabridged version which seem to be six months to a year behind the "normal" book & abridged audio book hitting the book shops.I know you will not have a lot to do with this side of your books being published. However perhaps you could answer this question. If the publisher can issue the abridged version of one of your novels @ the same time as the hardback.(I surmise it must take longer to abridge a book than just take the whole book & give it to a reader to read.)Yet as I have said you can wait for up to a year to "read" your latest novel.I did put this to a publisher(not yours).They just stated I could get the abridged version.However I believe that if an author has researched & sweated for whatever time it takes to write that book.Then I as a reader ought to take just a small amount time to read the whole book.I am sorry to "bang on"about this but it is very frustrating to see a new Sharpe or the 2nd or 3rd book in a series become available & not be able to read it.It really is like to people sitting down to eat a hot meal & one person being able to eat it hot & fresh & the other being told that they cannot eat thiers for a few hours.It is just not fair! You are such a good writer that when I have finished one of your books I am ready for the next instalment.I have just finished Crowning Mercy & it was so enjoyable I did not want it to end.So once more I just want to say a big thank you for putting pen to paper & doing it so well.
Stephen Ashmore-Hughes

I just want to say how Stonehenge completely blew me away! What a fantastic book - and I admit to never having read one of your books before. I am now in search of more reading - a very powerful and totally absorbing book and one of the best I've read in a long time. Many thanks! *smiles* Lianne Bryce

Dear Mr. Cornwell. I'm a fan of you from Brazil and I'd like to say that I love your books and that here in Brazil it's a hard task to find your books. I´ve been trying to buy Sharpe's Fortress for three months and I don't find it anywhere even on the internet, I'm starting to get crazy because I really need your books, they are the only good things we have here to read. But I really have to say thank you for this wonderfull oportunity to leave this world and get in those fantastics worlds that you create in your books. From one of your fans in Brazil, Henrique.

Dear Bernard, As one exiled from the North East of England some years ago now, I just want to say a mammoth "Thank you" for the Uhtred series. What a character! There's so much weaving of so many things into that one man, and I particularly love that tension between the old pagan religion and his cynicism towards Christianity. I read from the perspective of (a) loving history, (b) having worked as a Mental Health nurse for the last 21 years, and (c) having worked "part-time" (if that's possible!) as a Christian pastor and church-planter. All those three things I suppose have given me a love for that which has a "ring of authenticity" about it - whether it be a Christian community in the heart of the inner city, or a psychiatric rehabilitation unit injected with a respect for people's struggles. The story of Uhtred (I'm just over half-way through "The Lords of the North" now!) has that ring of authenticity and integrity about it. Having avidly devoured "The Last Kingdom" sometime last year, I was in Christchurch (NZ) in late October for a conference. It was early evening, and I stumbled into a bookshop close to the Cathedral Square, and there was "The Pale Horseman". After purchasing it, I decided I'd go sit in the square until dusk and have a good read - but that first I'd go buy some food. As I was purchasing my meal, the young woman behind the counter said "What an amazing night to go and celebrate Beltain." (it was October 31st).I suppose she might have thought I wouldn't have had the faintest idea what Beltain was, but when my response drew more of her story from her (and why it was that she had such a desire to celebrate an ancient British pagan festival!) we ended up having a pretty amazing conversation as to what it was about the Celtic Christian preaching of Christ which had led so many in Ireland, Scotland and Northumbria to embrace Him... And then I went and read about Uhtred. His ambivalence towards all that Alfred stood for; his understanding of the spinners and about the fact that "Fate is inexorable"; and how in each experience of love - Brida, Hild, Steapa and of course Ragnar - he's drawn closer to the true lover of men's souls. That evening stands out from many such experiences which have led me to the conviction that a truly authentic story has so much power woven into it - power to shed light on our own lives; to forge "connections" with other folk; and ultimately to draw us to God. So thank you Bernard. I guess when Uhtred's story is finaly over I'll feel like I've lost a friend. But at the same time, I'll have learnt to laugh at myself a little more often, to have the courage to act on the sense that God has led me in a certain path for good reason, and to walk through this world marvelling at the richness of the tapestry which history weaves. There's an old Blessing attributed funnily enough to St Cuthbert: "See that you be at peace among yourselves, my children, and love one another. Follow the example of good men of old, and God will comfort you and help you, both in this world and in the world which is to come..." With Every Blessing on all your Endeavours, Philip.

I'm most of the way thru 'Sharpe's Fury' and enjoying it immensely -- but have one problem. There are quuite a few locations mentioned in this critical part of the book, but they're not on the maps. Please give us more detail in maps of the future. BTW the BBCA Sharpe series is super. George Hopkins (and wife Frieda) A-1 fans of Sharpe and company.

Dear Bernard, Am a huge fan of all of your novels but have recently been captivated by Uhtred's antics! The three books really are fantastic and must compete with the Arthurian trilogy as your best yet. However, please tell me that the story continues! I was under the impression that it was also a trilogy but it seems there is much more story to be told. Regards, Dr Alexis Tanner

I was just wondering if you intend to write further adventures of Uhtred and Ragnar. I have really enjoyed the series, not least because I am an 'exiled' Northumbrian, and have childhood memories of Bamburgh, Seahouses and the surrounding area. Keep up the good work. By the way I am just part way through reading Sharpe's Fury, and thoroughly enjoying it, as I have all the Sharpe novels. As I said keep up the good work, thanks, Bob Moffett.

Dear Mr. Cornwell: I just completed reading The Grail Quest series and cannot believe Hollywood has not made a motion picture based on the three books! It would be perfect for such a thing (as you probably know). I'm about halfway through the Sharpe series and have read several of your stand-alone novels. Great job on all of them! Thanks for continuing to bring history alive through historical fiction. Wishing you the best, Don Sproat - Orlando, FL