Dear Mr.Cornwell, I just finished reading my first Sharpe book (or for that matter, any of your works) yesterday and must admit that I regret not having started earlier ! This was about Tippoo. Having said that, and also admiring your effort to be balanced in your approach (in which endeavour you have been very successful), I must admit that the one line where you have mentioned that Tipu (as is commonly spelt) is “revered by Indians” is factually incorrect. I am just one among millions of Indians who disagree with you on that score – as far as we are concerned he was a tyrant and a fanatic who had suppressed and slaughtered both Hindus and Christians, forcibly converted them en masse, and in general disrupted and overthrown a fairly peaceful (debatably) pattern of life in Southern India and the Malabar coast during his bloody reign. The Nairs of Kerala (I am one)probably suffered the most and though these days it is politically incorrect generally to criticise Tipu in contemporary Indian political and social circles due to the misplaced sense of pseudo-secularism that a lot of people display, I prefer to speak my mind. Warm regards Ashvin.