Hi Mr. Cornwell. I just finished The Fort. Bravo! It was an interesting departure from most of your other novels in that there was no larger-than-life central character, just ordinary people trying to cope with war. I particularly liked young Lieutenant John Moore. Would you say he was (or could have been) Wellington’s equal? If history had turned out differently and Wellington had died in 1809 and Moore had lived, could Moore have driven the French out of the Peninsula? And if Moore had faced Napoleon at Waterloo, would the British still have won? One more thing: I really would like some day to have Moore and Sharpe meet. In one of your Sharpe novels (I can’t remember which) Sharpe remembers that during the retreat towards Corunna, Moore walked his horse next to Sharpe and spoke to him for a bit. So I hope someday you’ll write the novel (NOT a short story) taking place just before Sharpe’s Rifles where this happened. Alan Kempner