Your Questions

Q

Dear Bernard your new novel the Last Kingdom it say's its coming out in October will you be touring the UK for its relase and could you ever get down Colchester way??? Also what books would you reccomend on the Vikings and Alfred to read for those interested in the subject???????? P.S I can reccomend in return No beter Place to Die by Peter Cozzens as shameless way to try and persuade you to get Starbuck to Stones River.

A

I'd love to get down to Colchester, but I doubt it will happen in October. Maybe for another book? Books? There really isn't one accessible book I could whole-heartedly recommend - but The Anglo Saxons, edited by James Campbell, published by Penguin, has a very good chapter on it - and Alfred, Warrior King, by John Peddie isn't bad. And thank you for the Peter Cozzens suggestion!


Q

How many Sharp's books have been turned into films and are available on video and where can they be bought?

Regards B Nolan

A

There are 14 Sharpe films (two are not based on books) available on either video or DVD. They can be purchased through Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com (go to the Suggestions for Further Reading page of the Sharpe books on this website and scroll down to the 10th listing for direct links to either Amazon site). The Videos and DVDs are also available through the Sharpe Appreciation Society (click on the link to their website from the Sharpe books page).


Q

Hi, I have just finished reading Sharpe's Escape, excellent, but a slimmer book than usual? Or maybe I read them too fast. Just a couple thoughts. Lieutenant Bullen of 9 Company. I thought the usual battalion had the Light Company, Grenadier Company(when will they start throwing those damned grenades) and the others numbered 1-8? Wouldn't it have been better introducing Lieutenant Harry Price, or better yet, putting Knowles back in the company? And Major Leroy, in fine form. However, in Sharpe's Company, didn't he tell Sharpe the new Colonel had brought a new major in, at the same time as a new Light Company Captain? Looking forward to more Sharpe action and The Last Kingdom. Adrian.

A

Slimmer? Actually it's longer than any since Waterloo - but perhaps it just read fast? And we're still two years away from Company, so I don't think it impinges on the new major. Thanks.


Q

Mr Cornwell, I started reading your Sharpe books a long time ago, and have enjoyed all your other literary works, my favourite being the Warlord Trilogy. I have a question concerning these books. Are the numbers you describe in terms of armies/warbands fairly accurate to the time? I know that the Dark Ages weren't recorded well, but did you take these rough numbers from sources or were they based upon your own judgement? On a sidenote, after listening to your choices on R4's Desert Island Discs I wondered which other songs from the Music Of Sharpe are your favourite, I love them all to pieces even though they clash with many of my other musical tastes! Many thanks, and keep up the excellent work, you are one of few historical authors able to engage heart and mind, and take one back to schoolboy historical fantasies once again! Benjie Groom

A

They were mostly my estimates - parttly based on old accounts (which always exaggerate) and on advice from the book War in Pre-History? I might have got that title wrong, and I can't immediately find it on the shelves - but I'm convinced that armies or warbands were very small by our standards. Hard to pick a favourite from the Music of Sharpe - I enjoy them all!


Q

you replied to a question by writing: 'Obadiah as sassy? A nice idea, but wrong. I know who Sharpe's father was and, tragically, it wasn't Obadiah. Calvet? I think he could well reappear.' I want to take out the part I know who Sharpe's father was, well who was it? someone we readers know? Chris

A

No one you readers know, but you will one day.


Q

I own a fair few osprey books, thanks to my happy Waterstones discount card. I was wondering how useful and reliable you found them for your Sharpe novels? What are your other interests, apart from research and writing? Finally, do you have any interest in Japanese history? Oh and great joke about the French and toast. Hehe. Stephen Bosco

A

I find Osprey books terrifically useful - and would recommend their new The Napoleonic Wars with a foreword by Bernard Cornwell - which tells you how useful I find them! Japanese Hisrtory? I fear no interest whatsoever.


Q

I started reading your work while I was a tanker in the U.S. Army. As a writer of historical fiction your books are realistic and detailed. Will Sharpe ever come in contact with an American character again? Also I'd like to know if you could recommend someone in the UK I could contact about the origins of my last name. Thank You for your time. Mark L. Sebourn

A

Sharpe and the Americans? Probably only in Europe! I don't know anyone who does surname research - there is a Dictionary of Surnames (Oxford?) which might help, otherwise I'd hit the internet (you probably already have), but with a due sense of dread (there's an awful lot of rubbish out there).


Q

Dear BC I am currently reading Sharpe's Enemy & I have a question about Fusilier's. What exactly is a fusilier? What makes it different from a musket? Also I must compliment you on the scene where Sharpe releases a barrage of rockets, head first, into the large French column. Pure brilliance! Kindest regards Michael Hromek

A

Sharpe likes rocketing frogs, dreadful man. Fusilier is simply an old fashioned word, taken from the French fusil - which originally meant the steel used to strike a spark from a flint - thus flintlock, so it's just a slightly pretentious way of saying musket. Fusiliers were, in essence, exactly the same as other line troops.


Q

Hello, I've just finished reading Sharpe's Escape and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You've said previously there probably won't be another Sharpe book next year (he deserves a little time off), will your next book after Last Kingdom be the next book in that series, or do like to alternate your writing between different series? How do pronounce the name of your new main character Uhtred? Keep up the good work. Brian

A

I'm not sure what I'm going to write next - I wish I did. Uhtred is pronounced Ootred.


Q

Having read all of the Sharpe books, I was wondering if there are plans to take Sharpe to Flanders, as this seems to be an area missing from Sharpe's history. James Constable

A

No plans at the moment - having taken Sharpe backwards in time once I'm not inclined to do it again, but who knows? I once said I'd never write the indian books and I did.