Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I’ve admired your work for many years and look forward to each new release and re-reading works I have not visited in a while. Let me preface, that I’m am not suggesting an idea for a book, nor do I have any manuscript generating literary ability! What I do have is an interest in history, partially nurtured by my mother who was decidiedly British in all ways! An interesting lady on many levels, she worked as a cryptographer in the RAF during World War II. One of my favorite discussions with her many years ago, concerned the astonishingly intrepid adventures and life of Captain Richard Francis Burton. To me, he seems an amazing amalgam of a Lawrence of Arabia, some of Errol Flynn’s Victorian swashbucklers, Indiana Jones, and yes, Richard Sharpe. What is your take on this Victorian Renasance Man par excellence, and why have there been (other than ‘ Mountains of the Moon ‘), so few cinematic or literary adaptations? I know that at one time the great director Richard
Attenborough was rumored to have considered this, and in my opinion Tom Clegg would be a fine choice as director of an adaptation.
Sincerely,
Bruce D. Worf, MD