Bulletin Board

Just finished - The Lords of th North, (about 5 mins ago) as usual "Excellent" Thank you, now awaiting your next. Kind Rgs, Brett Thornicroft, Dorset

I have just finished reading your latest novel 'Lords of the North'. Once again you have excelled yourself yet again. Every book you write just gets better and better. I read this book in 3 days and I do think your latest 'Viking' novels are your best so far. Having said that I and my family have enjoyed every single book you have written. Should you get time to read another authors books I would recommend the latest novel from Conn Iggulden. The book is called 'Young Bloods' and it charts the lives of Napoleon & Wellington, a thoroughly good read. Many, many thanks for providing me with many hours of entertainment and please keep your books coming. Jimmy Holmes

Have read most of your books and have enjoyed them all. However I have one moan, I have just bought a copy of "The Archer's Tale" only to find it's the same as "Harlequin". I was very disappointed having enjoyed the first three books of the Grail Quest, and was looking forward to reading a fourth, only to find it was "Harlequin" re-titled. Not to mention the wasted money. If your publisher decide to re-title a book I think they should make reference to the former title. I will wait, if impatiently, for the fourth book, assuming you will write another. Best regards, David

Hello there! Let's begin with the usual and corny start: the introductions. My name is Lorena, I'm 26 years old and I was born - and still live - in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Yeah, I'm from that part of the world almost nobody living on the planet hears about unless something very embarrassing happens here (like when the news found out our president was involved in a web of corruption). Anyway, what I truly and obviously want to say, since I'm writing to you, is how I LOVE YOUR BOOKS! And it is so funny the way I was introduced to them. A friend of mine had read The Arthur books before and tried for FOUR YEARS to convince me to read them. Well, every time I went to the bookstore and read the first paragraph of The Winter King, I said to myself 'No way I'm going to read this boyish book' and left the book there. It took me a summer with nothing to do and a lazy day in a bookstore to pass the time to buy it. Well, by the end of the book, I was telling myself: 'How the hell did I think this was not worth reading?' So, that is how your books became a good and healthy addiction. Since 2003, when one book is over, I buy another. Unfortunately, books in Brazil are extremely expensive and many of your titles have not been released here yet, so it is not that easy to be able to have one of yours. For example, only this year we have the Sharpe series here, but the publisher already said they are going to interrupt the publishing of the books at Sharpe's Prey. It is a shame, Dick Sharpe has become one of my favorite characters ever. Sometimes buying your books in sites like Amazon is the only way to get the newest one, but, again, for a very high price. A price, I must say, I'm completely willing to pay for. I don't know what moves me more when I'm reading your stories. The battles are terrific, your characters are the perfect imperfection and I never know what to expect next. As a journalist has pointed out, and whom I quote, 'In a Cornwell novel, ships sink, battalions end up bloody and revenge is sweet, especially when served cold'. And, yeah, I love all this! These characters who fail but also never give up; these complex people who struggle to be good in a harsh world; characters who are not good, but who are not evil either. Just like in real life, and it is this realism who makes me feel so connected to them. The loyal and brutal Derfel, the brooding and confusing Thomas, the ironic and sarcastic Sharpe. After reading one of your interviews to some magazine, I realized Sharpe has your sense of humor. And I like that. And the battles, ah the battles& Yes, nobody describe their sounds as good as you. I feel as if I were in there, fighting alongside your characters. It is a perfect and disturbing feeling, truly, even if I have strange dreams of dying from a bullet shot from an evil havildar in the night. For the first time in my life, a book has made me cry in some scenes, shout in encouragement for some characters in others and go to the extremes of throwing a book against the wall such was my anger at something that happened in The Enemy of God. I carry your books everywhere I go, to my ballet classes, to work (I'm a Brazilian journalist), so I can read them every chance I get. I'm a bookworm, I've been devouring books, as my dad says, since I was very young. I think it is his fault. He is a lawyer and it seems that they all have this 'thing' for books hahaha I still remember when I found a treasure in dad's library when I was 12, a book named 'The Fourth Protocol', by Frederick Forsyth, and after that, I only wanted to read more. Dad is reading The Arthur's trilogy now, and I think he liked it. Thank you for becoming a writer, I hope you continue writing these wonderful tales until your last day on this Earth. I would send you one of my books for you to sign if I could, but Brazilian male services are not reliable and I could risk never see it again heehee. So, I have to be content with sending this letter and pouring my feelings towards your stories to you. Sorry for the looooooooong letter. Sorry for butchering the English language. And until your next book! *abraços* (hugs) Lorena Novas

I must first say thank you for the Sharpe series. My Father had always said I should read them which unfortunately I did not get around to doing until after his death. A huge shame as he found the books as amazing as I now do and would have been one thing that we could have shared together. For the memories of my Father the books encourage I again thank you. I write to you referring to the elm tree of Waterloo. Whilst at my solicitors the other day he told me of the furniture that had been made from the elm by the farmer who owned the land, and that the final item had been found after it's disappearance, as it was my solicitor who was dealing with the estate that had the table. It turned out to belong to a gentleman of the Great Dunmow area who used it as a potting table in his garden. Although this happened around a year ago I felt it could not hurt to write to you with the link just in case any other fans of your books had missed it. Follow the link to see the news report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/4695875.stm. I also am very glad to see that you plan to release Sharpe's Fury for which I am glad as I am just about to run out of Sharpe novels and always love to read what the rouge is up to. Many thanks, Duncan Robertson

Bernard, As a frequent reader of historical fiction, thank you for the historical notes section at the end of most of your books, it allows me to separate the historical facts vs. the storyline fiction that moves the plot along. I have thoroughly enjoyed your Grail Quest, the Warlord Trilogy, and of course Sharpe. I have yet to figure out what happened to the Tippos jewels that Sharpe had at the end of Indian campaign, I guess I need to read Trafalgar and Prey. I am looking forward to getting started with the Saxon stories. I give thanks to the US Immigrations official who denied your Green Card request every time I finish one of your books. Regards, Jeff

I have just finished the saxon trilogy and have just started the grail trilogy. I haven't read any of your books before but one of the great pleasures of my life is when I discover an author whose work I love and find there are loads more books to read. I am going to have great pleasure working through your back catalogue and look forward immensly to the next Uthred book. Thanks for the pleasure you have given me. Jeff Ambler

Dear Bernard Listened to 'Stormchild' in CD book form on a long journey, and think it would make a cracking radio series, Thanks for Sharpe, Peter Ball

No response necessary - just thought I'd like to add my voice to any others in thanking you for the great work you've done. Keep up the impressively entertaining (and much the better for us fans, prolific) work! -AW

Dear Bernard. My wife just bought Gallows Thief in the UK - couldn't find it in South Africa - and I'm looking forward to reading it when she gets back. Another reader asked about "sheltron". I think this probably comes from the same roots as "schiltrom" or "shiltron" (Scottish usage for a body of spearmen) in a age of non-standardised spelling. OK, most people were illiterate anyway! Martyn Kerr