Hello, I am a great admirer of your books and thought I would write just to congratulate you on all of your books. I haven’t read all of your works but I am sure they are all fabulous. I am currently finishing Sharpe’s Devil, which I think is perhaps your best Sharpe book yet, I also thought that Sharpe’s Triumph was slightly confusing. Unfortunately I did miss both Sharpe’s Prey and Trafalgar and have recently discovered you have ‘slipped’ a book into the series. I have read lots of other books you have written such as Stonehenge and the the Harlequin trio, the Harlequin set has become my favourite books, they have started me reading more books( since I am a teenager I don’t feel the need to read) even though the only books I read are your books. Once I have finished the Sharpe series I shall start the Starbuck chronicles. One reason I wrote was that I wanted to know where you found the inspiration to write these books, especially the Harlequin, Vagabond and Heretic novels, also I was recently told that Sharpe was based on a real-life character who lived in Normandy. Is this true and if so what was his name? From your biggest fan and admirer, Michael