Dear Mr. Bernard Cornwell, I’m a former officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF) and the USMC, and a huge fan of Sharpe. However, I’ve noticed a distinct lack of Welsh glory in all the books and films I’ve seen so far, especially in comparison with the Scottish regiments you often mention and of course Harper and Hogan! I’ve recently found out that there is going to be another Sharpe film made. I know there is only so much control you’ll have over the film, but it would be great if you could make sure that the RWF or another Welsh regiment get some sort of good exposure in the film. Did you know that the RWF are the only regiment in the British Army that have the distinction of not having to drink the Loyal Toast?* I know that living in the States and having an interest in military history you are very aware of how seriously the Americans take their military heritage. One of the favourite regiments of the Revolutionary re-enectors is the RWF. There are probably more re-enactors in the RWF than there are real Fusiliers in the Army! Maybe if the whole Army had been Welsh history would have been different and I wouldn’t have been able to join the USMC! Now I won’t be selfish here. If it is within your power to give some credit to Wales’s military history don’t forget that one of the British Army’s most ‘glamorous’ battles (and the one for the single most VCs awarded for one action) was Rorke’s Drift; South Wales Borderers. Of course Sharpe might have been an old general by then or maybe had a son that was fighting, but I feel that all too often Wales gets ignored when it comes to it’s role in the British Army, hence in the new cutbacks the Welsh regiments are really going to suffer. So, if you do have any say, and of course if you don’t hate Wales, please give some credit to some aspect of Wales’s military history in your new film, even if you make it completely fictitious! Looking forward to more Sharpe adventures (hopefully with a Welsh ally), Chris Arvon-Jones * ‘His Majesty King George, as Prince of Wales, as Prince Regent, and also as Monarch would from time to time dine with the regiment. On one of these occasions, no doubt mindful of the Regiment’s declaration of loyalty during the mutiny, he is said to have expressed the wish that the Loyal Toast should be dispensed with as ‘The loyalty of the Royal Welch is never in doubt’. ‘ (The RWF do drink the Loyal Toast on St.David’s Day that being the equivalent to the USMC’s birthday)