Dear Mr Cornwell Like your other commenters, I have very much enjoyed all of your work. I am currently reading my way through the Sharpe series, having taken care to do so in chronological order, and I have just finished “Sharpe’s Eagle”. I noted what you said by way of a preface about having written the Indian books after the Spanish ones, and I have also noted some other questions you have answered about what happened to Sharpe’s jewels. However I still felt that there was a rather noticeable difference in Sharpe’s character between “Trafalgar” and “Eagle”. In the latter he is portrayed as no longer a young man and sexually somewhat naive, whereas in the former he still seems to be relatively young and his affair with the lady on board ship is anything but naive!

And, as others have noticed, there is the business about the jewels, with him being repeatedly described as poor in “Eagle” and not a mention of the wealth he gained in India (whatever happened to it later). Another point that struck me in “Eagle” is that he is said to have been taught to read in prison in India by the captain who dies at the bridge in Spain, whereas my (admittedly unreliable) memory of the earlier books is that he was taught by the elderly Scots colonel. I wonder if you have ever considered editing the Spanish books a bit to iron out some of the minor points arising from the (later written)Indian ones?

Dear Mr Cornwell Please add this to my previous message, sent today. Having just been to the library, I now realise that (a) “Sharpe’s Prey” covers the period between “Trafalgar” and the first of the Spanish books. I assume it was added to the series for this purpose and I think I may have been working from an older list of titles when I thought that “Sharpe’s Rifles” immediately followed “Sharpe’s Trafalgar” (and omitted to read “Sharpe’s Prey” in the correct order, dammit!) (b) I said “Sharpe’s Eagle” where I should have referred to “Sharpe’s Rifles” as the first Spanish book, in my previous message. I apologise for the confusion but(before I have read “Prey”)I still feel that Sharpe of the Spanish books does not seem to be quite the same fellow that we knew at the end of “Trafalgar”. Michael Saville