Dear Mr Cornwell,
I am writing to thank you for rekindling a love of reading fiction for pleasure which was ripped out of me whilst studying for my GCSE’s some 15 years ago.
As a 15 year old student I found that the dissection of a book paragraph by painstaking paragraph an absolute bore, the victim in my case (and sadly it is still being flogged to death by English language teachers across England) was John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice And Men” A story which I adored as a youth, but can no longer bare to read as it isn’t a story to me any more but simply a series of over scrutinised characters and plotlines which whether intentionally thought out by the author or (as i suspect in some cases) not are now so ingrained into my mind that reading the book has become a chore. Thats not to say I don’t appreciate the book, it’s just been ruined for me. The only consolation being that I achieved a B grade in the subject, anyway, I digress,
I have been a fan of the Sharpe TV series for many years and frequently re-watch them on DVD. But it was by chance that whilst covering a collegue’s lesson (some dismal affair involving Powerpoint Presentations) in the school library that I came across a quite old paperback copy of “Sharpe’s Rifles” As this is roughly where the TV series begins i thought it’d be worth a look to see how accurate the TV series was to the book. I can confirm that it is loosely based on the book (as i’m sure you know) But that is of no real consequence because after reading it, I was hooked and decided to hunt down and read the rest of the books in chronological order from “Rifles”. Six months and a Kindle app later I have just this evening finished reading “Sharpe’s Devil” and thought it an appropriate time to thank you for making works of fiction a pleasure again.
I have still to read “Tiger” “Triumph” “Fortress” “Trafalgar” and “Prey” which I am sure will be just as fascinating, enjoyable, colourful and historically accurate as the others.
Once again a massive thank you for re igniting my imagination and helping to exorcise the demons of a rubbish education system (which sadly I am now a part of) Let us both pray that your publishers never see fit to make any or your books a set script for students. Not that they aren’t up to the job, they’re more than good enough and i’m sure the financial rewards would be excellent ;-) But I would hate for you to be the focus of the massed hatred of 15 year olds around the country as Steinbeck sadly is at present.
Thanks again for letting me enjoy reading again,
Forever in your debt,
Pete Farnsworth (Design and Technology Teacher)