Dear Mr. Cornwell,

Firstly I would like to say I am a huge fan of your works and thank you for your brilliant novels! The Sharpe novels were the first proper novels I had ever read when I was younger and it only spurred on my interest in history and further reading. The Napoleonic Era has always captivated me the most however, and for this reason I have chosen it as the subject of my A2 History Coursework. I have to think up my own question and then research it etc. This requires a lot of reading of varying historical opinions, so therefore my choice of question must be a contentious one that has lots of writing on it. I greatly admire Arthur Wellesley and so the initial thought I had was the subject of Waterloo and whether the Prussians did indeed win the campaign. This interests me to an extent, but I admit it is really hard to find a question, especially on the Peninsular Campaign (which I am most fascinated by), that has a lot of contesting views from historians. I was wondering if you, through
your extensive reading, know of any contentious issues surrounding Wellesley’s career or the Peninsular Campaign that have accessible books on the matter, since evaluating the merits of historian’s arguments is the key part of this work. And if so could you recommend any? I have read the Iron Duke and Redcoat by Richard Holmes, War of Wars by Robert Harvey, but obviously these books are very general, covering an era/lifetime. If it is possible you could provide any advice or recommendations on the matter I would be indebted to you!

Yours sincerely,

Henry Evans