Having had an 8th Grade Teacher who insisted on inflicting a couple of chapters of “Hornblower” on us every afternoon, I swore off “military adventure novels” at an early age.
Well, you changed all that.
I enjoyed the “Sharpe” series on PBS and eventually picked up one of your books — discovering what pleasure reading well-researched and well-composed historical fiction can bring.
Since I’ve been a Jim Corbett fan since High School (“Man-Eaters of Kumaon” was on our recommended list) I HAD to order “Sharpe’s Tiger”. You seem to know a lot about Tigers, Mr. Cornwell. And I laughed out loud when I found you’d named Appah Rao’s bodyguard “Kunwar Singh”, for Kunwar Singh was the wily poacher who taught young Corbett the rudiments of jungle lore AND how to shinny up trees in an “emergency”!
(How on earth do you devise those fight scenes? Do you lock yourself in a room as Japanese sword afficionados do, imagine a dozen opponents and make notes as you dispatch them one by one?)
I just wanted to tell you how happy I am to have discovered your works. Thanks to you, I’ve even read some “Hornblower”!
Anna McDougald