Bulletin Board

Q

Good day Sir,

I am an Allied Forces military vet and my last position was in Geo Int and have read everything you’ve written and I want to thank you so much for it all. I could go on to say we had similar parental conflicts growing up.

I have a difficult time reading military battles or fights - but yours has a unique realism that I wonder how you get.

I was in Gaza right after Sept 11 doing VIP security and was in one very intense live fire.

I’ll tell you the fear can freeze your body and at the same instant everything slows down so so much.

Thank you so much for Sharpe and Starbuck. Having semi retired I have started writing myself and that has always been a life-long dream of mine and your text and your audiobooks have kept that dream alive in me.

I initially came on here to find what story the large hearted Harper and bird lover gets the monkey - and I found it is in Assassin.

Rifles/Waterloo and Assassin really captures their relationship - and that too seems real to me, as I have the size of Sharpe and my closest pal has that warm heart towards animals and is a true Harper. And we did fo at it at once - all the men cleared out - and we both gave better than most but he would have won - and we stopped ourselves before it was going to cost us our friendship.

Thank you again for the all the work. I have an idea in this last year how much it actually is. It’s a deep trench Sir and you are the best.

Doug.

 

A

Thank you for your message and thank you for your service!


Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

I first entered a world of your making as a graduate student in Illinois, watching PBS's broadcasts of the Sharpe' Rifles series. Then, again, I streamed the BBC production of The Last Kingdom, continuing to follow it on Netflix. I so enjoyed both dramatizations! But only quite recently did I begin reading the Saxon Tales series of books on which the latter are based. I have so enjoyed your portrayals of the Saxon, Dane and Norse cultures of the period and the permeation of medieval Christian faith into them. I appreciated the earthy warrior humour, including about the religious conflicts! Further, I felt I was educated about the warfare of that period and its brutality. As one who has spent most of my working life in party politics, I was struck by how little has changed as to the extent to which political leaders are expected to be "gold givers" to their voters, supporters and colleagues in "the shield walls" of party politics! As with Saxon Tales, some are motivated by service to God or humankind, or are driven by a vision of what could be. But by and large, humankind are driven by gold, land, sex and family. When I was midway through reading Saxon Tales, I discovered I may descend from one of the Uhtreds. One of my dad's maternal aunts served as a missionary with her husband in north India and in Kenya, from the late 1940s through the late 1970s. In one or the other of India or Kenya, my great aunt befriended a British ex-pat who was a Burke's Peerage researcher who traced a connection of my dad's maternal line of the Dunbars to the medieval Scottish royals and through them to one of the Uhtreds. It might even be true! Perhaps the highest compliment I can offer is to point to  your powers of observation of human nature at its best and worst, enlightened and benighted, virtuous and crass, and heroic and cowardly. I look forward to starting your Arthurian series! With appreciation,

Russ,


Q

Just wanted to say I’m reading “Last Kingdom” series and I have never written an author but your books are truly amazing!!  I’m 77 and wished I’d have started along time ago!!!  Thanks for great reading!!

Linda Bowes


Q

Mr. Cornwell,

I want thank you for taking the time to write your books. Not just that you wrote them, great, but the detail in them. I never liked reading. I saw your books and said ok, I'll try again. They are hard to put down. I believe Im on the Last Kingdom Series again for the fourth time. The Grail Quest I've read I believe five times. To see the the battles, smell the fear or taste the blood is crazy. The detail in the books you've written pulls me in further. I look forward to reading the different books you have written again even thought I've read them multiple times. Its like getting connected to the different characters so they are not alone going through a struggle but you're right there with them. You're standing in the shield wall or running and jumping over the wall. You're fighting for your life when you cut your opponents ankles. I get in the mood for different things at different times but I'm always in the mood to hit the gym and read your books. You truly are a gifted person and have given me a love of reading I didn't understand before. I've been reading your books for about twenty four years now and no matter how many times I read them or how many times I go over the same passage it doesn't get repetitive to me because I can block everything out and enjoy. Thank you again and I look forward to whatever you have next.

Mike


Q

Dear Mr Cornwell,

 

It has been a while since I have contacted you. Firstly, thank you for Sharpe's Command, great to see him back, it was well written and slotted nicely in the series.

 

I have just finished Young Bloods - 1st in Simon Scarrows's Wellington/Napoleon quartet. Not sure if you read them, but I am finding them enthralling. I however am finding it a bit like a Sharpe companion (without Sharpe). It is possible (although he does not say It, that we witnessed Sharpe's mother die in the Gordon riots - at least that is all I was thinking about whilst reading It!

 

Just read about Boxtel  and the gruelling retreat. I knew little about this,  have you ever considered going back in time and writing about that in a 'first Sharpe book' - just a thought.

 

Keep up the Stirling work

 

Kind regards

 

Dan

 


Q

Hi Bernard

glad to see Sharpe going strong and I hope you are too sir!

Just wanted to let you know I have a bit of an interest in ww1 pilots and their aircraft and my studies have recently discovered a Captain Sharpe AND a Lieutenant Harper both of 73 Sq RFC in late 1917/early 1918 flying Sopwith Camels.

Sharpe was made a p.o.w. after being brought down and Harper also some weeks later.

EPIC WW1 story!

Escape to Holland?Historical fliers??Historical battles???Juicy!

I thought it may be of some interest to you as Sharpe's ancestor was depicted in the four American Civil War stories you released in the past.

Sharpe and Harper descendants in ww1 and in the air!Some great material there for you to use in the way that you do.

I have the Sharpe,ACW and Warrior Chronicles book sets,my father,his cousin and I love them.All well thumbed!

Thanks for your great visions in book forms, much pleasure given to many.

Kindest regards,

Ian.


Q

I recently began re-reading the Sharpe Series and was excited to see there was a new title that I hadn't read yet.  I have always been a fan of battle-centric historical fiction, probably going back to the Military History course I took as part of my ROTC training in college in the 1970's, using the excellent "War Through the Ages" book by Lynn Monross as source material.  Thank you for all of your wonderful words, history, and characters.  I think I will re-read the Last Kingdom series next.  If you are ever in the Pacific Northwest, stop by Sequim and we'll take you sailing in Sequim Bay.

Lisa O'Keefe


Q

Won't bore you with a long.winded explanation of appreciation of your Sharpe books, just to say thank you from this 84 year old lady who has decided her hero is no longer Jamie Fraser but Richard Sharpe; I'm on book 14!   Enjoying so much and please keep writing!!!!  Abrazos!

Nancy Hamer


Q

Dear Mr Cornwell

I've been a huge fan of your books since childhood.

To date, I've read all that you've published and have loved each story. It's also worth mentioning that I once wrote you a letter (in the early 2000s when I was a child). You kindly took the time to write back to me and this letter (and the book you sent with it 'Sharpe's Trafalgar') is still a treasured possession.

I'm writing to you today for an important reason. Today marks the realisation of a dream. My favourite series you've ever written is the Sharpe series. I've read these books so many times that many of the characters now feel like old friends. As a child I made myself a promise, one day I wanted to own the whole Sharpe series in UK 1st edition hardbacks. Well, it's taken me 20 years but today the dream was finally realised! I was able to acquire the last 1st edition book I was missing (Sharpe's Sword) in an auction. I've just placed it on my shelf alongside all the others and I can't even begin to describe how satisfying it was to finally see them all together as a complete 1st edition collection! To celebrate I think I'll start re-reading the whole series (in chronological order) tonight!

Thank you so much for all the joy your books have given me over the years. You and the characters you've created have had a huge impact on my life!

I hope in the future (if you're hosting a book signing event in the UK) I'll have the opportunity to meet you in person once again and maybe get some of my 1st edition books signed. With this in mind, I'll keep an eye out for forthcoming events!

Very best wishes and have a great day,

Samuel Moore


Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

I would like to congratulate you with your Birthday and seize this opportunity to extend my deep appreciation to you. Your "Warlord Chronicles" are enormously important to me and I still remember many scenes by heart. By the will of fate, I was lucky enough to get acquainted with this unsurpassed trilogy when I was eleven years old. I remember reading chapter by chapter avidly, as if in a fever, and my obsession with this series of books passed all conceivable boundaries. Together with the protagonists I lived, loved and died, cut the throats of enemies and buried comrades, kept the oath of allegiance to friends to the last drop of blood and mercilessly destroyed traitors, believed in the old gods and recovered the Thirteen Treasures of Britain, participated in the mysteries of Mithras and converted to Christianity, secretly continuing to observe customs of ancestors, mourned old pagan Britain to my very marrow with unbearable pain, lighting a monstrous funeral pyre, and rushed into the last battle, knowing that we were all doomed to death. In a word, I took the "Warlord Chronicles" extremely to heart. Derfel Cadarn, Ceinwyn, Arthur, Guinevere, Nimue, Merlin, Morgan, Galahad, Issa, Tristan, Iseult, Cuneglas, Helledd, Culhwch, Sagramor, Aelle, Cerdic, Bedwin, even Sansum - I loved them all so much, as if I knew them in person. I can open the books anywhere and smile or cry with the deepest nostalgia.

Dear Mr. Cornwell, you gave me the greatest Treasure, which has no equal. Now I am a Master of Historical Sciences, and your books arouse my admiration in the same way as they did 13 years ago. I can say with complete confidence that you are the best author of historical novels of our time. I would like to wish you long life, great inspiration and further brilliant creative path! Thank you for the whole world of “Warlord Chronicles”!

I apologize for any mistakes in my English and thank you very much for reading this letter.

Most respectfully from Moscow, Russia,

Elena