Dear Bernard,
Please don’t worry about a timely reply (or any reply at all, really, unless the spirit moves you). I just wanted to drop a line and let you know that I’m very much enjoying the Sharpe novels, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to read them! Having watched both the Sharpe TV movies and The Last Kingdom series, and being an avid reader of Dumas, Sabatini, Forester, Conan Doyle, etc., you’d think I’d have read you before now. But it’s wonderful to find something new in this vein after decades of reading!
I also wanted to mention that my hat’s off to you re: the research that’s gone into your books. I’m an author of trashy romance novels myself (not to worry, no manuscript, story ideas, or other horrors are coming your way — I sometimes have to deflect those myself, though on a much smaller scale), and I’ve written a few historical romances along the way. One of them involves a Royal Navy officer who briefly visits Spain in 1810, and I have to tell you — it’s not easy to pin down precise movements of anyone, is it? It was such a background element of my book (which wasn’t really about the war at all), and yet trying to find where Wellington might have been in a specific month of a specific year was…surprisingly difficult. I found that in his own book about the war, he tells the reader where literally everyone was except for himself!
Now that I think about it, I really should just have emailed you to ask, since I’m sure you would have had it in your notes. But now, on the advice of a couple of scholars of the period, I have a nice collection of books about the Peninsular War and the Royal Navy, so that’s a plus.
In any case, that little bit of research into that specific time and place has given me a new appreciation for your research, which just adds to the pleasure of being well entertained.
Thanks! I hope you’re well, and best wishes for more books and all the good things in life.
Best,
Elena