Dear Mr Cornwell, greetings from Berlin. I’d love to see Richard walking Prussia, but how could that be possible? Anyway, a question: in “Sharpe’s Rifles”, Louisa says on page 206 that the Hessians believe Charlemagne to sleep in Oldenburg. Now I am not a Hessian, I give you that, but I did live in Oldenburg, and I never heard that story. Quite famous is the legend Friedrich I. Barbarossa is sleeping in the Kyffhäuser mountains, and Charlemagne is supposedly sleeping in several places, but not in Oldenburg. And there is no Oldenburg in Hessen. So maybe Louisa got it all mixed up, but maybe you were informed wrongly, and that would be a stain on your otherwise so beautifully accurately researched novels, wouldn’t it? And before I forget: I’m utterly besotted with the Sharpe Books. I only need to find Sharpe’s Siege, then I have em all! Sir!
Volker Dieling