I am a great admirer of yours, Mr Cornwell, and i am thrilled to read Azincourt, when it comes out. I read several Sharpe novels and I liked them all. By the way, I have two questions for you. First, in Sharpe’s Honour, in the very beginning, 1500 Frenchmen surrendered to 400 redcoats after their three guns were immobilised by the riflemen. Did that truly happen? I do not wish to insult the French, I’m sure they were no cowards, but it does seem cowardly of them. Perhaps their commanding officer was a coward. I know the value of the gins, but such a large number of french infantry can blast the redcoats with musketry, can they not?

second question, I read the French sack on Soissons in your Excerpt of Azincourt, the English sack of Caen, the French sack of Coimbra, and others. not to mention general behaviour of the 9th century in your Saxon novels. Why were soldiers so brutal? I cannot imagine Sharpe or Thomas behaving that way, and they were good soldiers, and not timid. By the way, any plans of coming to Malta? Yours ever Mat