Dear Mr Cornwell
Firstly, can I say a heartfelt thank-you to you for all the excellent books you’ve written over the years, and continue to write. Like most people, I’m especially fond of the Sharpe books and the wonderful characters to be found within. Along with Patrick O’Brian and George MacDonald Fraser you are, and always will be, my favourite historical writer, and have greatly enriched my life. Thank you.
Sorry – had to get that off my chest before I began my question. In your excellent Writing Advice, you talk about building a better mousetrap, perhaps the best advice I’ve ever read for aspiring writers (I’m a winemaker; we continually drink other wines to help us know how we want to make our own).
Having a fairly picture-based mind, I’ve often wished I could see a photograph or sketch of your ‘enormous coloured charts’. I know they found there way into the round filing cabinet on the floor many moons ago but can you possibly dredge up any more details from your no-doubt excellent memory?
Did you have 300-or-so page-shaped outlines drawn onto the chart, with a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown written into each page? Did it run from left to right or from top to bottom? And by enormous, do you mean A3 or 8 foot?
Like everything you have written, I’m intrigued and wish to know more. Keep up the fantastic work, thank you for being so accessible and thoroughly nice, and apologies again for the inane questions (anything to not start writing in earnest, I fear!).
Best,
Sam Jary, Nuits-Saint-Georges, France