Dear Mr. Cornwell, you may (or more likely may not!) remember an e-mail I sent you a year ago, asking as to the number of eagles captured in Sharpe’s Regiment. I’ve solved the mystery now anyway! I did have a couple of questions though; firstly that old chestnut – when are you going to bring out the next book in the Starbuck chronicles? Are you working on it or is it on the back burner for a while? And secondly, I noticed your review in George Macdonald Fraser’s ‘A Quick Flashman’ and thought I’d ask your opinion. Is Flashman fictional, do you know? Certainly he existed in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, certainly there is evidence that he did exist, from what I’ve seen, and I believe he even wrote a book ‘Dawns and Departures of a Soldier’s Life’. Is GMF’s work as we are meant to believe it, that he found the papers and simply edited them, or is he just a very clever writer? I’d love to know your thoughts on it. Also, what do you think Sharpe would make of Flashman? Ricky Phillips