Dear Mr. Cornwell (sir), First, thank you for writing such entertaining and colorful adventure stories. Shamefully I must admit although I am a bibliophile I was first drawn to your work through the BBC Sharpe episodes. I later delved into the written series and have relished each book thus far. At the moment I am reading Sharpe’s Trafalgar and what absolutely pulled me in the most are the very real and believable characters and descriptive settings. Well, that and Sharpe’s brilliant dialogue! It is worth mentioning that when I read Sharpe I do not always picture Sean Bean, though I do not wish to take anything away from his rendition of Sharpe. Hes great! Until last year I was in the Marine Corps and have begun to write in my spare time around my current 9 to 5 day job and raising twins, a tough duty indeed. Your stories have also provided, in their own way, a large degree of motivation for me. You are probably wondering when this lad is going to ask a question! Well, I won’t prolong any possible agony any further: How well do you feel military history fiction is received by the publishing world and how does this reception compare with what you feel is the actual readership interest in such stories? Once more, thank you for coming to America and taking up the pen … I mean the keyboard. Best regards, Paul Leicht Elk Grove Village, IL