Dear Mr Cornwell, You are a magnificent writer. I just wanted to thank you for answering my query regarding the lead in Sharpe`s abdomen and thus allowing me to continue with my belief in him. Re. earlier correspondence, after a letter in the Telegraph re. women in the Front Line, I had some communication with Flashman`s George MacDonald Fraser who stated that: “There`s only one thing to do about political correctness, and that is to oppose it tooth and nail”. George Orwell`s 1984 shows the end result of us not doing this. The Sharpe Books remind us of men`s instincts, honour, gentlemanliness, and love of mankind. “I don`t think God listens to soldiers”, says Sharpe in Siege. “He loves them…We`re the fools of the Lord, the last honest men, creation`s scapegoats”, answers Frederickson. In Sharpe you celebrate the human spirit in its strengths and in its weaknesses; far from the world of robots and zombies that the New World Order is fast foisting upon us. Thank you. MB