Dear Bernard,

I have just finished reading your latest novel WAR LORD and wondered just how prodigious was your production, so I counted.

21 Sharpe novels, 13 Last Kingdom, 3 each for Grail Quest and Warlord Chronicles, 1 each for Azincourt, 1356, Stonehenge, The Fort, Gallows Thief, Redcoat, Fools and Mortals, 5 Modern thrillers, 2 in partnership with Susannah Kells, 1 non-fiction (Waterloo) and 3 Sharpe short stories. That’s in excess of 60 books.

If you had been writing just one book per year you would have had to have started when you were 12 years old, so I think I can be fairly certain that you must be working on at least 2 and possibly 3 during the course of a year.

I’m lost in admiration!  Please don’t stop writing anytime soon; the stories are always of the highest quality and you have an army of fans, all waiting for the next off the production line.

David E Coote