Bulletin Board

I have some information I'd like to share, Season 2 of The Last Kingdom is on the boards...http://release-date.info/tv-series/the-last-kingdom-season-2-release-date-5849367281/

Starbuck is coming to the big screen but you guys already know that. I can't wait for the next Uthred/Saxon Story book, The Flame Bearer. Sounds great. Keep up the great work Bernard, we love you. Someone needs to tackle the Arthur Books. If I had the money I would.

Peter

 

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

I love your books despite the fact that I am French and that, by now, you must have killed at least half of my compatriots!

Major Dulong died in his bed in Paris in 1828. He ended up a general and a Comte, stayed faithful to Louis XVIII during the Cent Jours.

Best Regards

Perraud

 

Dear Bernard

Just wanted to say, as Bernard Wiggins you taught me history at Halliford School in Shepperton around 1968,I remember a bunch of us visited your house on occasion where we met your then wife and a pair of Afghan hounds. History and English were the only subjects I was good at , your classes were always interesting and entertaining which made learning so much easier.

I have only recently discovered you are the author of the Sharpe stories which I greatly enjoy watching on the TV Drama channel.

Best wishes to you

Miles Corbett

I just found two volumes of your series the Saxon Chronicles and read them and I am VERY impressed!

 

Re:  The Tempest.   You should look into the real events behind The Tempest, the wrecking of an English fleet on it's way to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609. They ran into a storm and the flag ship was wrecked in Bermuda.  There was a secret report that was sent to London that described the events and Hakluyt was one of the 8 shareholders in the company that funded the voyage and it's believed that he gave a copy of the report to his friend Shakespheare and that became his basis for The Tempest..  I think a story based on the events and the secret report would make a great book!

<https://historymyths.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/myth-117-shakespeares-the-tempest-was-based-on-an-actual-wreck-of-a-ship-off-bermuda-that-was-headed-to-virginia/>.

 

FWIW  My 12th great grandmother was Mary Purchas, the brother of Rev Samuel Purchas, a close friend of Hukluyt. Mary's husband was William Perkins a wealthy London merchant (and a Puritan) and he was a member of the Massachusetts Bay Company and he helped fund the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a refuge for the Puritans (just in case things went the wrong way during the English Civil Wars).

 

Samuel Purchas <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Purchas>

 

Joe

Hello Bernard

I have form a number of years been a big reader of your fiction, having bought the Sharpe series twice!! and read them all 3 times over the years. because of your style and more specifically your actual historic summary at the end, I have read most of your other historic stuff too.

The reason, then for writing is to tell you what this has actually achieved for me.

As a direct result of being inspired by the above mentioned stuff, 5 years ago I decided to undergo a History degree with the OU. I have 1 year left to go - and also until I retire too.  Retiring means that there is limited real value of a degree other than the pure enjoyment of doing it. I was amazed at how the Sharpe stuff dovetailed in with the study but in this I would suggest a similar series to those of the 14the century, but for the turbulent 16th and 17th. - that way you would have covered most of the period I have studied. :) I have enjoyed the course immensely so thanks for the motivation and keep writing.

regards

Dave

Dear Bernard,

Once again I wish to express my congratulations on your book Waterloo. I recently spent time at the Battle-site and had a few books with me to help me orientate myself on the battlefield, your book and a couple from other Authors.

As a civil engineer I was particularly interested in the topography of the battlefield and its contours and I gained great insight into the fields of vision from different parts of the battlefield. It is interesting to place one-self in the valley and also on the reverse slopes and understand the view the soldiers and officers had during the battle.

Being my third visit to the battlefield in over twenty years, I found your book invaluable during this visit and referred to it again and again during my walkabout and unlike 1815, it did not rain, making my walkabout all the easier, I was very pleased to be able to wander about Hougoumont and enter the existing buildings.  I particularly enjoyed reading chapter 9 while resting inside the North Gate.

I said it on previous correspondence that your mapping is excellent and I reassert it here.

For anyone visiting the Battlefield, I would strongly encourage one to bring a copy of your book Waterloo for its clear mapping and excellent reading.

Thank you,

Robert King,

County Offaly, Ireland.

Last fall, my wife was directed to your "Last Kingdom" by a helpful employee at Joseph-Beth Booksellers after being unable to find a book I had requested by a British author.  I am indebted to you and them as I have since read all nine of that series and just finished the first four Starbuck Chronicles.  I look forward to both TV series and I avidly await the next books in both.  Thank you for hours upon hours of enjoyable education!!!

David Heery

Mr. Cornwell,

I discovered the Sharpe series as a 12 year old and immediately became hooked.  I read every single book that I could find that had your name on it (and learned to be frustrated by the experiences of grabbing an unfamiliar cover only to realize that it was a Patricia Cornwell novel, not one of yours). Every one of the series and the stand alone books have been entirely entertaining, agonizingly grippin as well as educational and I have returned to them again and again over the years.  It is such a pleasure to get a new story from you on an annual basis (not to mention a new television series) so I just wanted to say thank you for your writing and your consistency in both in the quality of writing and regularity of publishing.

Sincerely,

Andrew

 

Hi,

Just want to say thank you for sharing your extraodinary gift of story telling with the world.  Although I've been a science-fiction reader since my teens, in the past few years (I just turned 59 yesterday !), I have discovered a passion for historical novels... thanks to you.  Quite by chance, I browsed through the shelves looking for stories on King Arthur or the Vikings (don't really know why since I'm a French Canadian, although I've always read in English).   I really like your style and have enjoyed every single one of your books.  That's quite a lot of happy hours  you have given to several people, with or without a drink!   So, THANK YOU.  Just wanted you to know you made a positive impact in the lives of ordinary people and made us a bit smarter in the process.  It never hurts.

With admiration from a huge fan.

Lynn

Picked up a Saxon Stories at the VA recently, got hooked, read the whole series from start to finish, and then discovered they made the first book into a series. Just wanted to say thank you for an enjoyable spring-summer. The book also was an education into the history behind the making of England.

Rich Peterson