Mr. Cornwell, Hello again, Hope you are well into your Agincourt novel by now, I just thought I’d drop in with a few simple questions this time…

1. How important do you think the “side-kick” character is in adventure fiction? you have some great ones- Harper of course, Sgt.Truslow from Starbuck, Father Hobbe in the Grail Quest books, and Sam Berrigan from Gallow’s Thief to name a few. Do these creations spring naturally from the type of story you tell? The good sidekick seems like a particularly British contribution to literature. It probably goes back further than Doc Watson. I was wondering your thoughts on the matter?

2. Have you ever thought about making Sharpe’s adventures into a radio serial? Radio drama seems to have hung on in the U.K. more than here in the U.S., If you did, then you wouldn’t run into the production costs that make the film adaptations of the Sharpe books so untenable. As pointed out in an article in the Writer’s & Artists Yearbook, when you’re writing for radio, “It is no more expensive to be in the Hindu Kush than to be in a laundrette in Deptford”. Sharpe seems to be cut from the same cloth as certain golden age radio heroes. Something to think about?

Lastly, not to be morbid, but do you foresee the Sharpe books continuing on after your gone? like, for example, how the Ian Fleming estate or the Robert E. Howard Estate commission new works of their famous properties? Sharpe is such a durable and well-conceived character that I could imagine one could tell an infinite amount of stories about him. What is your view on this kind of “franchising” in general? Thanks as always, R. Kulb