Hello, I’ve been searching your mail looking for any reference to Sharpe’s involvement in a particular battle in the Napoleonic wars. It is plain from reading your correspondence that I am only one of many who get enormous pleasure from reading your books. But I guess that your success has reached the point where it is difficult for you to be aware of all that is happening in your organisation. Letter No. 17 in the “Not FAQ” section posted on 20/12/10 enquired about the Sharpe TV series on DVD and you replied that as far as you knew they were not. On 27/12/10 I was taken to the local flea market in Paphos – Cyprus where I found a boxed set of the complete series. The Publisher is Carlton Visual Entertainment Cat. No. 37115 03793. Web site www.carltonvisual.com.

I am searching your website to see if you have involved Sharpe in the battle of Belem which many Spanish regard as the turning point in the war against Napoleon. During the war the Spanish army dumped and abandoned French prisoners on the island of Cabrera off the coast of Mallorca where they largely starved to death. With every winter storm today sand is blown away from the shallow graves exposing their skeletons. A memorial was erected some years ago by French residents but has fallen into disrepair. Present members of the French Association wanted to effect repairs and my late wife who was French got involved in the project. She visited the Military Headquarters in Palma and while waiting to be interviewed was studying the wall decorations. Above the reception desk is a portrait that looked familiar and she realised that the same portrait was on the wall of her bedroom as a child. Who’s that? she asked, and was told that he was the Military Governor of Mallorca in 1809. Enquiries among the older members of her family revealed that he was indeed her great great … great grandfather who was regarded as a black sheep and not spoken of because he had been involved in a foiled plot to assassinate Napoleon and had had to flee to the Court in Spain. We were not able to discover more details of his activities before my wife died but she had discovered reference to him in the Spanish Military Museum in Minorca where they have a large scale mock-up of the battlefield at Belem. It seems that he joined Wellington’s army and his knowledge of French military tactics (He was an officer in the French army) was central in the planning before the English/Spanish victory at Belem. It is obvious that you have done vary considerable research into the Napoleonic Wars and I wondered if you had any information on this particular battle. My regards, A.C. Revill