I’ve written you before regarding your Saxon Chronicles, Grail Quest, Arthur Series, and Stonehenge…but now it is time to let you know my opinions on your “Sharpe’s” novels. I am a retired NCO of the US Army and I have to tell you that (unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your status and point of view)I have seen and experienced a GREAT many similarities in the lives of our soldiers and officers as there are within your novels. Of course, rules, laws, and lifestyles have changed from those times and across the seas, and politics is “said” to have less an impact on promotions…but the politics are there, especially in the commissioned officers corps. Experienced and tried Platoons are handed to Lieutenants fresh from college (many might as well have purchased their positions), officers who graduated West Point receive promotion over more experienced (many might as well have been promoted because of their standing at court), better officers who merit it, and politics are always alive, even in the non-commissioned officer corps once that last stripe is earned (E-8, or MSG, SGM, CSM). I don’t mean to sound jaded, as I loved the Army, and there are great men and heroes from all walks, whether from high-school dropouts or from West Point elite…but the positioning, politics, and social communities are there. As with Richard Sharpe, it depends on the man. Anyway, I absolutely love the novels as I knew I would, and am amazed at the (some subtle, some blatant) similarities in the lives of the British soldiers of those times, commissioned, and non-commissioned officers of the US Army that apparently no amount of time, leaps in technology, or changed in the rules can conquer. Wonderful novels, wonderful heroes, and absolutely vivid backdrops, times, and characters. Loved them, I did! Shawson H, West Monroe, LA