Dear Mr Cornwell,

I have just finished reading the entire Sharpe series back-to-back during lockdown and felt compelled to send you a note to say how much I enjoyed reading them. I have effectively read them as one big continuous novel, finishing one and then picking up the next and carrying on with Sharpe’s adventures. As a history teacher I appreciated the diligence of the historical notes, very useful in case I refer to these events in lessons!

I enjoyed the Sharpe TV as a teenager, and it reminds me of my dad, who died in 2011. We would watch the films in the 1990s together (our other staple being Star Trek The Next Generation) and since his death I had planned to go back and read the books through. Lockdown gave me the perfect reason to want that sort of escape, but in my head I found myself reconnecting with my dad too. I am certain he will have read them and enjoyed them – he always like to watch shows and calmly point out that “it doesn’t happen like that in the book” – and reading them made me think of him in a way I haven’t for some time. I also know he had read the Grail Quest books, so that will certainly be a future port of call when needed to be called upon.

Ultimately I just wanted to say thank you for inadvertently providing me with a medium through which I could access memories of my dad and with the highs and lows of Sharpe’s adventures. I could go on about the stories at length, but no doubt you’ve heard all that before!

With best wishes and grateful thanks,

Alex Porter