Your Questions

Q

I have just finished reading the Grail series books, and they're great and I am hooked. I was wondering if you are planning to continue the series any time soon, or is that the end of Thomas of Hookton? Roger Schoenheit

Submitted May 24, 2006

A

The Grail Quest series is done - although I have considered another adventure for Thomas, it is not likely to be any time soon.

Q

Hello Bernard I would just like to say a great big thank you for writing, The first ever book that I picked up as a 12 year old was Sharpe's Rifles and I havent looked back since, I have read the Sharpe series quite a few times and every time I re-read a book it gets better !!!, I own all your books apart from the Saxon Stories which hopefully once I've moved house I will get time to buy them and read them and add them to my collection !! Also I don't know which of your books I love the most, I have enjoyed every book and I've now got my wife reading through the whole collection and she is enjoying them as much as I do !! When will you next be in England on a book signing tour ?? Specifically Waterstones in fargate Sheffield as I have seen you on a couple of occasions there a number of years ago. Bob Palfreyman

Dear Mr Cornwell for sometime now I have been wanting to meet you at one of your book-signings but have never seen you around South East London or Kent do you plan on visiting these areas in the near future? Neil Stevens

Submitted May 24, 2006

A

We don't have a schedule for my next visit to England - but it will be posted to the Diary page once we know.

Q

Hi Bernard, I've just read Stonehenge, superb stuff. So much so in fact, I took a trip to Stonehenge (not too much of a distance, I live in London). I must admit I felt a little under whelmed. Oh well, give thanks to the gods for imagination. This is where the begging part of the mail starts! I'm comic book writer and artist, and have begun the Herculean task of writing it. It's based on a very famous piece of medieval literature. Firstly, how the hell does one start to research a subject (as you have for all your historical novels)?

And secondly, how the Dickins does one prepare for the flood of rejections!? I'm preparing meself for the mother of all literary beatings! Thanks for your time, and keep them coming. All the best Chris

Submitted May 24, 2006

A

By reading everything and anything on and around the subject! Sorry, not very helpful advice, but I don't know any other to give you! I would assume that your famous piece of mediaeval literature is available in a scholarly edition, and the bibliography to that will certainly provide a starting point - but often the best nuggets come from totally unexpected sources. It's all rather a haphazard and serendipitous process, which isn't at all helpful. But good luck anyway!

Find an agent who deals in comic books! Then they field the rejections - and it's much more likely that they'll know a publisher who wants such books, so rejections become less likely. If you're in Britain then you should consult the Wrtiers' and Artists' Yearbook, published by A and C Black, and look for an agent who specialises in that kind of book. Good luck again!

Q

Hi, I have read a lot of your books and enjoy your writing greatly. My question regards the Sharpe series. On the television there is an episode where Sharpe goes back to England finds his bother and works for a mill owner. Could you tell me which book these events feature in? Thank you Dan Inions

Submitted May 24, 2006

A

Not in a book - that was the work of the screenwriter.

Q

Hello Mr Cornwell,I hope you're well? Firstly Thank you for taking the time to reply to my last letters & thanks for the web page of the green jackets museum. I will be visiting there soon. I went to the SAS 10th Birthday bash with my wife & had a great time! Unfortunately I missed the chance to meet you (which I was gutted about) for you had to go early but I met the cast & crew of the films who were nice & really enjoyed the Waterloo exhibit & the band! There was a reenactment society there of the 95th which I thought was great! They had a stool of a typical soldiers equipment, that he carries into battle & had a Bakers rifile on it! I asked the soldier who was standing by the stool if I could hold the rifle? & to my delight he said yes! But he said I must not call the rifle the B word? He said rifile men who called it that got punished! So my first question is why?

He also said that spitting the ball down the barrel like they do in Sharpe's Eagle (Film) (Not sure if it's in the book?) was folly because they would burn their lips on the nozzel after the secound shot & the cartridge fitted down the barrel anyway? so my second question is how many shots could a soldier fire on a good day with Musket or rifle? I also didn't know the rifile shot was coverd in leather why?

I watched Sharpe's Challange & thought it was Brilliant! The actor who played Dodd was spot on! what do you think? & it was fun picking out parts of the books & how they changed Bikerstaff for Hakeswill. But sadly no tigers? My only gripe was Sharpe had not seen Harper in years & when they did meet it was like "You alright?" "yeh! you?" "yeh!" & on with the story. But great film so I'm not complaining! Do you know if they will add the new film to the box set Soon? Thanks once again for answering my letter & may you carry on writing great books for decades to come! P.S its my birthday soon & wonder if you could tell me the best documentarys to get on dvd to buy. Anything to do with the napoleonic wars Sharpe (I've read you're in a Sharpe documentary? is it on dvd yet?) Weapons, battles , soldiers , etc thanks again! Gary Beadle

Submitted May 24, 2006

A

First I've ever heard of it! I'm sure he's right, and can only deduce that I'm horribly ignorant - - sorry.

He's right - they didn't spit the ball down - and most often they would wrap the ball in a leather patch before putting it into the muzzle, so he'd be handling the ball anyway. They wrapped the rifle's ball in a greased leather patch so that it would grip the barrel's rifling (the balls were not made to a fine tolerance like later bullets). I have found evidence that some men could fire five musket rounds a minute - but that was exceptional. The British redcoat was reckoned to be able to fire three a minute, though that rate would slow down as the barrels became fouled with powder deposits. A rifle? One shot every 45 seconds would be good work.

'Sharpe's Challenge' is available on DVD in the UK now. Go to the 'Sharpe's Challenge' page of this website (the link to it is on the home page) where you will find information about the 'Sharpe's Challenge' DVD and a link to purchase it from Amazon.co.uk. The UK History Channel documentary 'Sharpe's War' is not available on DVD as far as I know. Other documentaries? I'm not too knowledgeable - sorry - try the internet? And have a happy birthday!

Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I was so happy to hear about Sharpe's Fury coming this September. I've read them all and just recently finished up the Starbuck Chronicles which is when I had a wonderful thought. I hope you think so, too! Since the 145th Anniversary of Gettysburg will be coming up in July 2008 would you consider timing Nate's return for a little action at Gettysburg?? I can't think of a better writer to do justice to bringing that part of the war to life and with such a memorable character. Thanks, Beth

Submitted May 22, 2006

A

Wouldn't the 150th be better? I'll think on it, anyway, thank you!

Q

Hi, I have just listened to a radio interview where the author had auctioned for charity a character in his book (the winner had the character named after her son who had passed away), I was wondering if you have ever done this or would you even consider it? I think I read that that you had named Frederickson after a priest that you had met. Are there any other fictional characters that are named after real people? Thanks for all the great hours of reading. Ben Ixer

Submitted May 22, 2006

A

I haven't done it, and probably wouldn't - though I have auctioned off the dedication of a book for charity - The Bloody Ground. I prefer that, because putting 'real' people in books (other than historical characters) throws up all sorts of problems - it's basically inhibiting. I sometimes put the names of friends in books, but it's done affectionately (Frederickson was one) and I make them the absolute opposite of their real selves.

Q

Hello Mr Cornwell, I wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed reading pretty much every story you've had published. Your ability bring such diverse times to life is wonderous. As someone with their MA in history I also appreciate your historical accuracy and your author's note at the end of all your stories. I'm currently writing a historical novel of my own and I had a question that I hope you can answer. One issue I'm having is that of length. I'm writing in single spaced microsoft word and its hard to judge how many book pages I've written . Do you have any suggestions? Any other advice would also be appreciated. Thanks for in my mind redefining historical fiction. Josh Moser

Submitted May 22, 2006

A

It's hard to tell! Publishers can put anything from 27 to 42 lines on a page, so you'll never know until the book is published. A much better gauge is the actual number of words in the typescript, and Word will conveniently count those for you. My suggestion is that you can't really get away with anything less than 120,000 words these days . . . . more is better! BUT - remember that if you write non-fiction then just about every line (except the ones at the beginning and end of paragraphs) are the same length - on my computer (I use WordPerfect) that averages out at 16 words a line. Why is that important? Because in fiction a lot of your lines are MUCH shorter - dialogue can often end up with one word lines - "yes." So I count the lines in a chapter, multiply it by 16, and use that as my gauge. The last book I wrote came out (by that method) at 130,000 words - in truth it was probably nearer 115,000, but it takes up the same amount of space as a 130,000 word non-fiction book. Hope this makes sense!

Q

Hi. My name is Gregoire, I am French and I had questions about your book "king of winter" which I found very interesting. I am sure it was written over strong historical bases so I would like to know why is it so different from the legend. For example it is said that Ban de Benoic throne was in "Ynys Trebes" which is the Mont Saint Michel and in the legend in a castle in Broceliande's marsh. So, being from Normandie and a big admirer of the M.S.M, I would like to know where to read more about it and his attack by the Francs. At last, I am sure you are often congratulated for your book "the last kingdom" but I would like you tell you that the french translation is really well done, the terms use for the Viking's speaking make the reader travel in the past. Thank you very much for your time. Best regard. GREGOIRE

Submitted May 22, 2006

A

There really isn't much of an historical basis! And I have to confess that I entirely invented the attack on Mont St. Michel - it never happened, but it was, of course, a marvellously romantic setting and I yielded to temptation! Why is the book different to the 'normal' versions? Because those versions all differ wildly from each other . . . the true basis of Arthur (if he existed, and I think he did) is that he was probably a British war lord who fought off the invading Saxons, and from that misty, forgotten career a host of legends and myths have sprung up. In one sense I was trying to recreate a society and a sequence of events which would explain the birth of those myths, but the whole background is so mysterious that I suspect I just confused the matter even more. Still, it was fun to write!

Q

Mr Cornwell, First of all, thank you for providing me with many hours of high quality reading. The title 'Storyteller' is truly the definitive description of you as a writer. In fact your work (and your advice on your site) along with some other really fine authors, have inspired me to embark on an ambitious yet exiting project which I have considered for some ten years- writing a book. I believe my entusiasm and my research to date is sufficient for a first attempt, although I do have a question that needs to be answered prior to commencing. How much world history, buildings (even supposedly existing ones) can I make up without going too far? E.g. if I wanted to create a secret society that have existed for 300 years for the story, should I use the name of an existing society, or can I simply make one up? Or, if in the story I wanted to place this society's sign on real buildings (where in reality those signs do not exist). Will making all this up take away some of the mystery for the reader? Although I do not care for his style of writing, I note that part of Dan Brown's success is using 'real' buildings, names existing societies and organisations, etc. Your view on this will be greatly appreciated and will be taken into serious consideration prior to proceeding with more research. Respectfully, Patrik B Nilsson

Submitted May 22, 2006

A

I'm not sure I know the answer to that one! If in doubt, my advice would be to make it up! Of course you can use real buildings, and real organisations, and the example of The Da Vinci Code shows that you can get away with an extraordinary amount of invention . . . but if, say, you feature the Illuminati, a secret society, then I think you should do all the research on them . . . . but again, The Da Vinci Code shows that ignorance is blissfully profitable! So in the end I think it's up to your instincts - this has not been a helpful answer, and I apologise.