Dear Mr Cornwell, Have you ever thought about writing a book on a darker, immoral more ruthless anti-hero? Despite being killers, and in some cases murderers, most of your characters have morals and are reasonably virtuous. I think it would be interesting to see a book based on a young Obadiah Hakeswill and his terrifying and bullying rise through the ranks culminating in him recruiting a 16 year old Sharpe and them fighting at the Battle of Boxtel. This would make Sharpe a secondary character in someone else’s story and it would be away for you to go back in time within the Sharpe stories and all us avid readers would see how so much animosity came to exist between Hakeswill and Sharpe. As a character we all love to hate it would be a strange emotion to read about this but ultimately we know that Hakeswill does get his comeuppance. Hope my thoughts on this are okay. Cannot wait for your new novel. Kind Regards Tom Haslett