Hi Bernard.

Nicholas Monsarrat wrote a series of books called The Master Mariner which was based on an Elizabethan sailor Matthew Lawe who, as a result of cowardice during the fight the Armada, was condemned to “wander the wild waters until the seas ran dry”. The idea was to write a series of books from the Armada through to the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway in 1960. Lawe was thus involved in many of Britain’s most famous naval exploits including WWII convoys. However, Monsarrat died before he completed the series, but did however write plot lines for the final books which were eventually published as part of the second volume (with an introduction by his wife). While readers didn’t get the benefit of his prose, they did get an outline of what Monsarrat had planned for Lawe. I know your stories tend to write themselves as you go, depending on the dictates of your characters, but do you do the same for your major series like the Saxons, Sharpe and Starbuck?

Chris