Hello again Mr Cornwell, I would first like to say a big congrats on your OBE! Well deserved I think! & may you long continue! I read on this site the other week about your relative who stayed at his post although under heavy fire but sadly died, it was quite a moving story, as I had a great, great uncle who died in the first world war, under heavy fire! & my mum has a photo on her wall, of his family , which he was carrying when he died, such brave men. With the anniversary of the battle of the Somme the other week, I was told when the British advanced on the German lines the tommys were told to walk because the Germans had supposedly fled the trenches! But sadly they were told wrong & were cut down in there 1000’s but the officers still told them to walk on – why? When they knew the orders they were given were misleading? Surely good officers don’t follow orders blindly? I know it was near on a 100 years after Sharpe’s day but did pomposity cause many a death back then also? I’m still reading the Sharpe books at mo & they get better & better! Thanks for your time & I caught the mini series Sharpes war on the history channel (at last!) but missed the first installment (bugger!) but found it informative & enjoyable, I’ll keep a beedie eye out for the first episode. thanks again! Gary Beadle P.s good luck with the scotish play! I’ve been in the play myself a couple of times & I think you would make a great Duncan – is there just the one night?