I have read all the Sharpe books from when they came out, I am 64 so old enough to. I have also read the thrillers and the American Civil War books although I do not think you had the feel for that that John Jakes has or Michael Shaara. I say this because on the back of a peeny dreadful by someone called James Nelson a quote ” this is the best civil war book I have read” is attributed to you. I suggest you read Shaara`s Gettysburg and watch the 4 hour movie, if you have not done so. Now that is about the best Civil War book going, apart from the first two books of North and South. I saw Gettysburg the year it was made roughly and have had it both in VHS and DVD. There was another TV series around 30 years ago that was quite good as well but I cannot remember the author of the original book. Nothing has matched them in the 48 years or so that I have seriously read history fact and fiction both ACW and Napoleonic by yourself, Alexander Kent, CS Forrester, Dudley Pope, Allen Mallinson and Showell Styles. You will probably know all of them but AM and SS are probably not known much by the average reader. As a North London boy who had relatives in Essex and when older worked out of Great Baddow I have been trying to work out where South Essex is. And it must be somewhere between Ilford , Billericay, what was once Pitsea and laindon or Rainham. Sarthend is too far over east for me.

Martin Fletcher

I forgot to add, I just finished reading Azincourt which I got from the library and really enjoyed. It is about 30 years since I read that kind of history novel. And most of those are now out of print. I wondered why you print these questions from the Americans about when will the films come out over there. Have they never heard of multi-region DVD players. I get a lot of war movies, such as Anzacs and Gods and Generals plus Texas and the James Lee Burke books made into films imported direct from Oz or USA. Thee are a lot of good war and westerns and thrillers that have never been released over here or are hard to get. And I do not understand their problem. My partner had never ever seen Anzacs or War and Remembrance or the Spenser series my Robert B Parker so I just pick them up from states Web Sites. I do not order more than 2 or 3 at a time so I do not get taxed, or may be the import rules have changed. I know when I bought a pair of real cowboy boots from a store in Wichita they cost me twice as much when the tax went on. I also bought a load of old Lamour novels from a store in Cedar Rapids Idaho and spoke long distance to the owner. When I looked it up on the map I realised it was a town probably just like you see in some redneck movies. Pop 300 with two bars and a store an d motel and 4 deputies. Long winded I know.