Dear Mr Cornwell, I’ve just discovered your website, mainly because I am re-reading all of your Sharpe novels, which I started collecting with Sharpe’s Rifles many years ago, and I was interested in other books you have written. My interest in the period is due to the fact that although I was born and raised in London, along with my older brother, my father Manuel (family name VIGO) was born and raised in the city of La Coruna (or Corunna as the English say) and every summer that I went there, my grandfather (a RSM in the Spanish Cavalry) would take me to the “English Garden” to see Moore’s grave. My mother Gianfranca (family name ODINOLFI) comes from a village near the city of Bergamo in Lombardy, northern Italy, and so has some interesting connections regarding Napoleon’s conquests too. A few years ago I happened to be staying with my grandparents in La Coruna during the summer with my parents and older brother, and a recreation of the battle there took place over a weekend, which was wonderful to watch (it took place in the field opposite my grandparents’ flat near the Roman Tower of Hercules lighthouse, rather than on the actual battlefield outside the city limits (my father tells me that when he was a boy, La Coruna was, in fact, an island separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. It is so built up now that I never realised it wasn’t just a “crown” of land jutting out into the sea, but is, in fact, artificially connected to it by roads. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your books. I even enjoy the films with Sean Bean, although I always find the battles more evocative in your books than in the films, which tend to concentrate more on his love life than his battles, but perhaps I’m one of those women who grew up as a tomboy and always was more interested in playing football and war games with my brother and the other boys than playing dolls with other girls, and this attitude has obviously followed me into adult life. I look forward to reading your other books (I have a love of history, particularly the history of the people involved, that makes me think that I’ll like your other books). Kind regards. Marianne Vigo