After having read 20 of your 21 Sharpe books back-to-back I know now that Sharpe became something of a reader courtesy of Lady Grace and Madame Lucille but that his writing was somewhat hesitant. So when I stumbled across a penciled note left in a mid-19th-century volume on Wellington’s Peninsular Wars in an ancient book shop in a back alley in Greenwich, signed ‘R. Sharpe, wondering if his elder daughter still looked like him and who his father might be, I thought I would ask you if it could possibly be a note from one Richard Sharpe?

I also read the fascinating book by Linda Blandford on the making of ‘Sharpe’s Challenge’ and she mentions that a character in your Starbuck Chronicles, Patrick Lassen, is Sharpe’s son. Is that true? If so, I’m going to have to broaden my reading schedule as I am now suffering Sharpe withdrawal until ‘Sharpe’s Fury’ finally arrives from amazon. Yours in history, Susan James