Dear Mr. Cornwell, my name is Atharva. I live in Mumbai, India. I borrowed Heretic and Sharpe’s Tiger from my library, and being a fan of historical fiction (I hadn’t heard of you before I saw these books),devoured them both in two days. Now the library dosen’t have all the Sharpe books, and it is not always possible to borrow the ones that it does have, because most of them are always lent out (turns out you are immensely popular in India, too). So, seeing as the Sharper series is a huge one, is it necessary to read it in chronological order to understand the story and characters, or can I read them as and when they are available and still be able to get along fine? And are there going to be more of Sharpe’s Indian adventures? By the way, in your historical note, you say that the Tipoo is out of the mainstream of modern Indian tradition because he was a Muslim and spoke Persian. I would like to say that Indians do not want all their heroes to be Hindu. I could quote many examples of national heroes who were not Hindus, but are still honoured. The term Hindu does not equal Indian. The former is only a small part of the latter. The ‘educated’ Indian you refer to in the note must be an exception, not the rule. I look forward to reading more of your books.