Your Questions

Q

Dear Bernard, I just want to say I absolutely love your Sharpe series and I have just started reading the new Sharpe's Skirmish, it is just brilliant. I must admit I fell in love with the series through Sean Bean, but on reading the books I fell in love with your writing. But I wanted to ask you if you did a degree at The College of St Marks and St Johns? in Plymouth, Devon (England) as I have seen pictures of you in the college allumni, I am a student there and I could not believe my eyes when I saw it! Because of my love for history and the peninsular war (Sharpe etc) I am now in my second year of a degree in English (language) and history! I hope you keep writing more Sharpe books and maybe persuade Sean to turn some more books in to tv adaptions! :-) Thank you for your time and I can't wait for your next Sharpe book! Kirsty :-)

A

Thanks for your message Kirsty. I did, yes, though not in Plymouth - I was at the college when it was on the Kings Road in Chelsea, in the 60's, which to readers of a certain age will only prompt jealousy. Good luck with your studies!


Q

Sir, I was 12 years happy within in "The Housold Cavalry, that was until I was first met "Richard Sharpe". I had never before even contemplated that say the Guards (Foot) could have a better history. But I am now a devoted "Sharpe Man" I have not even looked at the hounours of the 95th in case it does not measure up to what I have seen on screen. I do however have a question. Could you plese tell us how "Sharpe" and "Major Lennox" of the 78th met and how "Sharpe" got his stripes. I do believe that the "India oddessy" would be a great boost to the books in general. Thanks for allowing me to write. Respectfully Yours. Philip Carr

A

Thanks for the message! I seem to remember that Sharpe and Lennox don't exactly meet at Assaye, but that Sharpe is aware of the other man. Does that help? And Sharpe gets his stripes as a result of his activities in Sharpe's Tiger.


Q

Dear Mr Cornwell, thank you for your reply. Where did you think of the name Richard Sharpe and was there a South Essex regiment. Also why did you want to have the 95th rifles in your stories? Joe Barber

A

Richard Sharpe was named for one of the greatest of England's rugby players, Richard Sharp, a Cornishman and a god. There was no South Essex regiment - I needed a fictional regiment so I wouldn't be constrained by the real history of a genuine regiment. And the 95th have always appealed to me - they carried a unique weapon which opens up all sorts of narrative possibilities.


Q

Has writing the Warlord series changed your views on the Welsh (celtic) - English relationships?
Robin Trenbath

A

Not really - I mean it's all there in the books, and I hope you detect a great sympathy for the Welsh who had the misfortune to lose their land to a much larger aggressor - and it's odd how those tensions still exist over 1500 years later, but a tension best worked out on the rugby pitch.


Q

Dear Sir, Being born in '86 I was a little too late for televised sharpe (England), I never really understood the stories at that early age and just told my dad to tell me when the shootin' started! But my secret passion for 19th century warfare caught up with me, and I recently managed to scrape enough money together to buy the DVD box-set. I got Havoc last Christmas, and I've been reading them chronologically ever since, and just finished Eagle today (just in time for the next for escape), quite an impressive CV sharpe would have. I'm curious to know, apart from the obvious, the extent of your influence of the television shows, as there seems to be big differences in the stories. Were you ever invited on set for help? Thank you for your time James Trethowan

A

They didn't need my help, but they did invite me to be a cheerleader, which I was. I knew (know) nothing about TV drama so I didn't want influence - I was happy to let the experts get on with it.


Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I am a huge fan of your Sharpe books and have read many of them. I am amazed that the books were not created sequentially. My question: How much of his story did you know or had you fashioned before you began writing the first book? And how important is it to know the whole story if you're writing about merely one year or one period in a character's life? Incidentally I really enjoyed your discourse on that perilous voyage of writing a first novel. I too am interested in writing historical novels. If you could get back to me I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks, Bob

A

It was extremely irritating that the books were not written in sequence - but that's because I wrote the first series, thought it was finished, then along came Sean Bean and the TV programmes, so along came a second series. Sorry about that. I've never had his whole careeer in my head - not till it's written. I don't know what's going to happen in the next chapter, let alone the rest of a book, or the next book. I think you do have to possess an idea of a character's past as you write, but his/her future is what you discover as you go along. At least it is for me.


Q

Dear Bernard, I notice most of your protaganists are misfits in some way, the common officer, the yankee confederate, the saxon briton and now the norse saxon. I think they make great characters and obviously allow for certain social commentary and split loyalties but was wondering if there was any particular reason you have written about so many such characters? Just read Sharpes Escape, another great story, looking forward to the Viking/Saxon novel. Will it be more like Grail or Warlord or completely different? Many Thanks Jeremy

A

I don't know why so many are misfits - but of course they are. Probably because such creatures appeal to me? The next novel (The Last Kingdom) - a bit more like Warlord than anything else, but in truth, to me, it seems unlike either.


Q

Dear Mr Cornwell, another question from me, so don't worry if you don't have time to answer! I know that you didn't want Harlequin to have a different title in the States, but who came up with the alternative title? Were you asked or did the publisher just make it up? I think I would have been very annoyed if it were the latter! Still, it's the content that counts. Thanks for your time! Rachel

A

If I remember rightly the publisher suggested 'Flight of Arrows' and I baulked at that and, unable to change their mind about changing the title, suggested 'An Archer's Tale' instead. It was, still is, VERY annoying.


Q

Hello! I've just been browsing your reader letters section, so I just wanted to throw my two cents in, begging your pardon. I've been devouring Harlequin every few months since I stumbled across it last year. It's brilliant! Although I regret the fact that you're putting Thomas off the hook, as it were, for some time, it's better than a straight-up abandonment of the story. So you've researched Agincourt already? My pulse quickens, Mr. Cornwell! Just a few questions: did you really find evidence that disreputes the old "blue-faced-celts" story? Were the heretics of Astarac/Cathar actually real? Please excuse my presump-tuousness, I hope you can clear these things up for me. Please never quit Thomas, Mr. Cornwell, because it's the best stuff I've read in years! Now, I'm waiting for softcover Heretic, but I've already read the first chapter. Good to see Bohun again. Too bad about Will Skeat, though... Best regards from BC, Canada- Stuart

A

Agincourt is researched - but it's still in the queue - don't know when it will be written. 'Blue-faced Celts' - yes, of course they existed - they dyed themselves with woad, but this is VERY early stuff, and I doubt the habit survived into the first millennium. The Cathar heretics? Very real indeed. I'd recommend The Perfect Heresy by Stephen O'Shea as a good introduction to their sad story - but there are many other books on Catharism.


Q

Dear Bernard, I've read all of your Sharpe, Grail Quest, and Warlord books, and think most of them are great (although, admittedly, I did not enjoy the Thomas novels as much as the rest). My main question is that I think I know who would make the best father for Sharpe (this comes from that deep, dark, twisted, sadistic of my imagination). the father is none other than (drumroll) Obediah Hakeswill. What do you think? Also, any chance of bringing back the brutal, blunt (cannibalistic?) character known as General Calvet for another adventure with Sharpe or maybe in a stand-alone novel? I would be very grateful if you could answer my questions. Yours sincerely, Gearoid Joyce

A

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.