Greetings! Not from sunny Guernsey this time… but from unseasonably cold Sydney! On the “your questions” part of the website, someone asked if you’d consider setting up Sharpe as a detective, or something to that effect, and I don’t know if you are aware, but someone has done just that! ‘Ratcatcher’ and ‘Ressurectionist’ by James McGee are about a Bow Street Runner during the Napoleonic period. They are quite good, except the main a character: a dark-haired, ex-95th Rifles officer who used to carry a rifle around like the common soldier, a wonderful sword fighter, friendly with Wellington, was present at the taking of an Eagle at Talavera (apparently historical fact now), and later in the war fought with partisans. I don’t know about you, but the character sounds so strikingly like another I know of the period, so wonderfully portrayed by one of my fellow yorkshiremen… check it out anyway, and consider it a compliment from Mister McGee!

Nick Smith