Dear Mr. Cornwell, I’m a great fan of your writing and also have been a subscriber to “Military History” magazine, starting with their premier issue in 1984. In the latest issue July/August in the “Letters” section, there is a comment about the gravesite of Benedict Arnold by a Bernard Cornwell out of Chatham, Mass. As you state you are presenting living in the Cape Cod area, is this comment from yourself and are you also a reader of the magazine? Being a historian of note, are you aware of the only monument on US soil that does not have any inscription on it located at the Saratoga Battlefield in upper New York? The monumnent is of a boot only. It is to represent the actions a of a certain American military leader at the Battle of Freeman’s Farm in 1776. Very Interesting.

Also I wrote to you last year about a certain author I enjoy who, like yourself, writes about a fictional character during a historical time. His is during the Plains Indian Wars in the 1800s. Again like yourself, Terry C. Johnston always visited the battlefields before his writing and immenses the reader into the time period of his books. Again, like you do, he made his character, either Seamus Donegan or Titus Bass, believable in that they, like Sharpe, were a common man, one who could do wrong as much as right. That’s what I enjoy about Richard Sharpe, a professional soldier, but not above committing even murder, for revenge or purpose. You wrote back on your website that you had not heard of the late Mr. Johnston, but that you might see about reading one of his books. I wonder if you ever got a chance?

Lastly, was there a particular individual in history that you based the idea of Richard Sharpe on, or was he a composite of several people and why did you chose the period of 1808-1821 to place your first historical character in? Thank you, Jeff Juri