Dear Bernard: Just reading through the latest posts to the “Your Questions” this morning and I saw that you wrote that Sharpe’s father is not an historical figure!!! Say what!!! We’ve been guessing for quite awhile now — is there no answer to the riddle? Or is his father a fictional character, that either you or someone else has created? Please keep writing and stay well! Looking forward to “The Fort”. As always, Scott

Dear Bernard On the matter of Sharpe’s dad. Sir John Moore perhaps? Sowing some wild oats at 16. Or could it be Sir Thomas Picton? Currently re-reading Sharpe’s Company for the nth time. More Sharpe please! Regards Rob Comber

G’day Mr Cornwell. A couple of questions if you’d be so kind… you recently stated on this website that Sharpe’s father is NOT an historical figure. Am I correct in concluding that this means his father must be one of your own fictional creations, thus his identity must be found somewhere in one of the Sharpe books? Secondly, you mention here that you’re currently planning your next three books and doing the research as we speak. You also state elsewhere that you’ve done some of the research for the next Starbuck. Does this mean that another Starbuck is lined up amongst your next three books? Cos that would be bloody great!

Phil Dean

Dear Bernard, You said to another questioner you were thinking three books ahead. Can one of those please,please,please be Starbuck. We all love you dearly and want you to write more. It seems sensible, therefore, to reduce the amount of questions we send you so you have more time. As I think 30/40% of our questions are about Nate, do the decent thing, write the book and a lot of us will leave you in peace. Regards, Lee Menzies