Mr. Cornwell..
I have loved the films based on your stories for years but only realized recently as I moved from the Last Kingdom show to your books that you wrote the Sharpe series. You do a wonderful job in your writing of finding an old voice. I am an amateur story teller but in no way successful or accomplished as you are. For me it is just a side. I love the written word and cherish it so. You describe the England I always dreamed of as a young child. I traveled in the 70’s with my mother looking at long forgotten genealogical sites and visiting castles and countryside. One day my father and I crawled all over the English countryside with a map in hand. It wasn’t a treasure map, rather a map of airfields used in WWII. When we found one it was a patch of grass. A meadow, nothing more. I think I thought it would be lined with Spitfires or something. When I was six I stormed up a hill with a tower on top where the Holy Grail was supposed to be buried. I was disappointed it wasn’t there. Only cows and poop. Today I look back and realize those journeys were the seeds of my own imagination. I think what amazes me most about your writing is the ability to incorporate lost language into story. You must be so accomplished with research reading the old long forgotten texts and incorporating a lost vocabulary into a modern one. I would so love to observe your process. Writing to you just reminded me of a short story. I was with my mother and she wanted to visit her hero the author Dephne du Maurier. We drove to the drive of her home. It was raining a drizzly misty rain and my mother spoke through a small box at the gate. Ms. du Maurier answered and thanked her for passing by. She apologized saying she was not feeling well and not up to having a guest. Looking back I can’t believe my mother did that!
Anyway, three cheers to you and your voice.
Patrick Bauer