Dear Mr. Cornwell. Please talk a little bit about the process by which you come to formulate a new Sharpe novel. In particular, what comes first, the plot or the historical setting? Do you say "I want to have Sharpe go up against an elite French anti-partisan unit, what Peninsular battle or siege will facilitate that?" Or do you say "I want Sharpe at the battle of Albuera, what sort of plot can I get him into in and around that battle?" Alan Kempner
A bit of both! Not a very helpful answer, I fear. Probably the usual thing is to find the passage of history first - so for the next Sharpe book I researched the battle of Barossa, not because I thought Sharpe would be involved (I didn't think he would), but because my wife and I were invited to a wedding not far from the battlefield and I decided to have a look at the place and, of course, got so caught up in the battle's story that I decided Sharpe really must go there. But that only gives a very skeletal framework to the tale - the hard work is discovering why he was released from Wellington's army for a few weeks, what in God's name he was doing near Cadiz, and who is trying to kill him. None of that is worked out yet, but it will be!