Dear Mr. Cornwell, I’ve just started to read an another historical series featuring another British soldier and was wondering if you had read any of these books and had an opinion on the character. The author is Garry Kilworth and his fictorial soldier is Jack Crossman. It seems to me that your Sharpe books may have had a influence upon this series as Crossman seem to be the opposite of Sharpe in that he is high-born who join the ranks, while Sharpe was low-born trying to advance thru the British military ranks of the time.. Crossman starts in the Crimea War period and is now getting into the period of India 1857. Would this now preclude you ever writing about the mid-to late 19th century?

Also are you familiar with the naval series of Richard Bolitho by Alexander Kent (Douglas Freeman)? I just re-read Sharpe’s Devil and in it Cochrane uses a deception of having a larger British warship chase a smaller ship with a British crew secretly on board into a defended harbour. I remember reading this same scenario in one of Bothito books.
Finally, do you correspond with any other historical writers? Thank you. Jeff Juri