Dear Mr. Cornwell, I hope you’re well! I am writing to say how much I am enjoying the Richard Sharpe novels and how much I admire you as an author because you have been true to your characters. It is for precisely this reason that I believe I’m finding it very difficult, if not painful, to read “Sharpe’s Revenge.” I have come to really love that character and man, it is so difficult to read about how the army, love, and peacetime, have all roundly betrayed him. It was odd. As I was reading “Sharpe’s Regiment” where he found Jane, I actually seemed puzzled. This was Richard Sharpe after all and it seemed odd that he would find true happiness in marriage because of the character. Well, you could have given Richard and Jane a “happily ever after” and have Sharpe retire a wealthy man in the Dorset countryside, but you knew that just wouldn’t be right. I am very curious about one thing, as an aspiring writer, just how difficult was it to “stay true” to Richard Sharpe’s character? Was it painful to put Sharpe through all of that? Thank you for the series! I’m looking forward to reading the Arthur books next! Take care, Matthew Mallio I am in the middle of :Sharpe’s Revenge”