Dear Mr. Cornwell, I’ve greatly enjoyed your Richard Sharpe (and other!) series and the vivid depiction of life in the early 1800s. I recall that Sharpe’s Sergeant carried a vial of fly larvae for treating wounds. I’m doing a presentation on larval therapy for débriding wounds, and I wonder if you have any historical sources for the use of maggots in treating wounds? Like moss and spiderwebs, it’s been a part of folk medicine for a long time, and there are reports of Confederate surgeons using maggots to treat wounds in the American Civil War. The first scientific studies were done in 1928, and maggot therapy found wide usage from then until the advent of antibiotics. It’s recently experienced a resurgence, particularly in Great Britain. Thank you so much for your books, and I hope you go on writing for a long time. Sincerely yours, Peter J. Liepmann MD FAAFP