Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I wanted to take a moment to thank you. I grew up with Uhtred – I can remember reading about his adventures as a young warrior in middle and high school, and Uhtred’s (now completed! Congratulations!) story is very dear to me. The books are like old friends that I have returned to time and time again, and I pass them on as recommendations every time I can. I can’t thank you enough for the hours and days I have happily spent, immersing myself in Alfred and Uhtred’s England.
I have, for some reason, never read the Sharpe books. For young me, swords and shield walls were of more interest than muskets (and Baker rifles), I suppose, and I never gave Sharpe a second thought. What a fool I was! – but how glad I am that I didn’t!
2020 has been, for me, the year of quarantine and Richard Sharpe. I have been tearing through them in chronological order via the magic of the Kindle – starting one as soon as the latest was finished, and I have a found in Sharpe a hero as riveting as Uhtred, in every bit as interesting, as dashing, as unique capable of finding himself in a scrap – and, remarkably, very clearly not just the same person in a different era. What a joy this has been for me, it really has saved my year.
Congratulations too on the Netflix show – as an avid reader of the books I was quite nervous that it would end up getting the Game of Thrones season 7 and 8 treatment, but it has felt exactly right. Different, as it should! But great fun.
I believe you live in Massachusetts? I own a bar in Cambridge, and if you ever find yourself in town and if bars are ever allowed to be open again, please let me know! I’d love to buy you a pint.
Thank you, thank you –
Andrew