Dear Mr Cornwell, May I thank you for hundreds of hours of pleasure I’ve had reading and listening to your books – and seeing you on TV visiting the places in ‘Sharpe’s War’. I have to admit, the casting of the Sharpe TV series was inspirational and also provided me with much pleasure – I just wish they could have stuck more to some of the stories in the books (e.g. Sharpe’s Gold) and hadn’t played around with some of the characters (Clayton and his wife dying at the hands of Obidiah when they they are still alive in at the time of Waterloo – in the book.) But such are the demands and insanities of production companies. As one who enjoys the tapes as well as the books (on my my many journeys) I have to say that I enjoy the abridged rather than the unabridged versions – rather fortunate as I’ve bought all the former and borrowed the latter from the library. In particular, I must mention Tim Piggott-Smith for making Arthur a truly living being in a believeable setting (I just can’t watch the armour-plate versions any more) and James Frain’s Gallows Thief. (More about Rider Sandman please!) Sorry about all the brackets! Yours truly, Ian Baird