Dear Mr. Cornwell,
I read an article in today’s NYTimes about the repatriation of art from museums. The point was that all subsequent calls for the return of art began in 1815 with the effort of the allies to send back the art in the Louvre (Musee Napoleon) that had been looted by Napoleon. Well, guess where I first learned about that? “Sharpe’s Assassin”. In your historical notes, you say that you anticipated the actual beginning of the repatriation process by a few months. I’m glad you did. The scenes of Sharpe, Harper, Pat Bee and the monkey in the Louvre are wonderful.
I began reading the Sharpe books back in the early 90s as the flip side of Patrick O’Brien’s naval saga. I loved having both the army and navy point of view. I’ve enjoyed the times you’ve had Sharpe aboard ships. I’ve also been intrigued by the glimpses of Sharpe and Lucille’s life offered by including Patrick Lassan in the Starbuck Chronicles. He’s my favorite character even if he only appears in brief scenes.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve traded in all my paperbacks for a complete collection of ebooks which I reread regularly — larger print. Thank you for sticking with Sharpe when you have so many other wonderful historical eras to continue exploring.
Sincerely,
Gail Hahn