Mr. Cornwell,

Thank you for your wonderful adventures and stories.  I find myself currently enjoying the Sharpe series again, for the fourth time, and I am curious how much of Sharpe’s history you already had in mind when you started Sharpe’s Eagle so long ago.  Even though you wrote Sharpe’s Rifles later, did you have the framework of that story or Sharpe’s Tiger, or Sharpe’s Triumph already sketched out in your head?

I read once that Patrick O’Brien wished, in hindsight, that he had begun the stories of Jack Aubrey earlier in his career as a midshipman, one of the reasons some of the middle stories occur in a “timeless” part of 1813.  Did you have that fear with Sharpe’s Eagle?

Thank you again for your time in crafting such wonderfully, readable adventures.  I can’t wait to see what comes next, and am excited to see what is in store now that you are turning to the Age of Shakespeare.

Thank you,

Jack