Dear Mr Cornwell, I thoroughly enjoyed the Sharpe TV series and thought it was a welcome change of pace from the style of series usually shown on TV. I was wondering if you could explain why in Sharpe’s Waterloo you felt it necessary to kill off the two remaining members of Sharpe’s rifles, Dan Hagman and Harris? The reason that I ask this is from the start of the TV series there is a theme of comradeship between Sharpe and his original command of sharp shooters, and while Sharpe gets promoted as the books progress and is put in charge of bigger detachments (South Essex, Prince of Wales own volunteers) there is still a connection to his original command of 95th rifles running throughout the books in the way he maintains his rifles uniform and characters such as Hagman and Harris, Perkins etc never fully disappear from the plot. In short, I was wondering if there was any underlying message in the final destruction of the symbol unity of Sharpe’s rifles or chosen men leaving only Sharpe and Patrick Harper (now a civilian) left. Knowing me I am probably reading into things too far or seeing symbols or connections where there are none to be seen. But I thought I would write to you on the off chance that there was something curtail that might have been left out in the episode of the TV series. I have yet to read the Sharpe books but do plan to as I am sure that there is much left out in the series. I am currently doing my A levels requiring a lot of reading and I know that is not much of an excuse for not reading the books but I am in-fact pretty busy writing essays and researching topics etc. Yours with great sincerity, Alexander Phillips