Hello I am just getting to know Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper but I am left a bit disturbed after finishing Sharpe’s Gold last night. I know that you have woven the destruction of Almeida into your story – but the loss of life, in fiction and fact, was terrible – more than 500 dead. Would Sharpe really have weighed this up and still chosen to set the explosion deliberately? And would Harper (who did not hear the Duke of Wellingtons commands to Sharpe)follow Sharpe so blithely in this atrocity? This seems like fanaticism to me but Sharpe is not a fanatic I love these stories and I do not need you to answer ( you have said elsewhere that you haven’t re-read Gold), but I am delighted to see how accessible you make yourself to your many fans. I inherited several Sharpe books from my uncle, and I am now trying to read them in chronological order. I am glad to have discovered your work and to have so much still to look forward to. Thank you.

Stephen McIntyre