Dear Bernard let me first start by saying I hope you had a nice christmas and I wish you a very happy new year. Second in Sharpes Escape will the interesting Colonel Trant be making an apperance? And at Bussaco which French column will Sharpe be fighting or will it be both? As for Starbuck when you get back to him will he be with Barksdale in the street fightinng in Fredricksburg itself? And will he be with Longstreet and Lee at Maryheights or with Jackson and Meade’s almost breakthrough? P.S This is just a request from me nothing more and you probably get thousands of these every day but please please do not kill Starbuck at Gettsyburg. He should be there until the end at Appomatox besides him missing the 40 days between Grant and Lee would be like keeping Sharpe from Waterloo it would be a crime in JMO. Geraint