Dear Mr. Cornwell. I have enjoyed most of your books, but I wonder if you could put my mind at rest. In Fitzroy MacLean’s ‘Eastern Approaches’ (wonderful book by the way) there is a description of the ‘bespectacled and cunning’ French Communist, Jacques Duclos. Is your Major Ducos based on him in any way, or is it nothing more than strange coincidence? For the reader that requested Sharpe against the Thuggee, I would like to suggest ‘The Deceivers’ by John Masters, who was an officer in the 4th Gurkha Rifles. It is part of a series about India told through the adventures of the fictional Savage family. Alas, not in print anymore, but a second-hand book shop ought to turn up an old Penguin paperback (if they haven’t all fallen apart). In fact, anything by Masters is well worth reading. Allen Hansen