Your Questions

Q

Have enjoyed all your Sharpe books! It appears "short books", i.e., Skirmish and Christmas came out o/a the holiday season. Will there be another for 2004? Best regards from a fan. Dennis

Submitted October 27, 2004

A

No, no new short story book planned for this holiday season.

Q

I am currently reading The Last Kingdom and wondered if you could tell me where you got the name Brida for one of the characters? My Grandmother was called Bryda but I have not been able to find out anything about the name. MERVYN LEDBURY

Submitted October 27, 2004

A

I haven't a clue! Sorry! Some time ago - when researching it all - I made lists of names as I came across them, but I never bothered to note what the sources were (because I don't need to know that) - so it came from a good source, but which one? No idea!

Q

I haven't been reading you for long but I am already enthralled by your books. I loved "the Grail Quest" books but I agree with you saying that Thomas's story has really ended. I have also read a couple of the famous Sharpe novels and have just started up on "the Winter King". I just want to ask if you have been offered the chance to have any of your books (apart from Sharpe, which is already a TV series) turned into movies? I know the a movie of books such as "Heretic" will never be as good as the book but maybe if people like the movie then they will start to read your books, which is what often happens when movies based on books are made. Also, do you know if it is true that ITV are making a second series of "Sharpe" based on the India books? I know this email is getting a bit long so I'll end it with why do you deem it nessecary for your main characters to always be able to read and write? I do hope you will continuously produce books on historical events twisted to go along with your character's adventures for History has never been so interesting. Robert Eyre

Submitted October 27, 2004

A

No movie plans at the moment - although a new Sharpe film has been talked about. Reading and writing? Sharpe had to if he was to be promoted. Could Derfel? Can't remember. The new one? Because Alfred insisted on it.

Q

Mr. Cornwell, As my favourite living author, I would be interested to know if you've read the works of my favourite non-living author, James Clavell. If so, what's your opinion of them and him? (I've read that he was a bit, well, I suppose efficacious is the word you would use!) Regards, James Moore, SC

Submitted October 27, 2004

A

I like his books - and I hear much the same!

Q

Greetings, I was just wondering why you decided to turn the character of Lancelot on his ear so to speak personaly I thought it was a nice take in the story..though the 11 year old boy in me was heart broken. Also I was curious as to whether the druidic rituals described in the Arthur series were based in reality . your faithful (and avid!) reader Michael Adair. p.s just to say that the Sharpe series really got me interested in the Napoleonic wars ,an era of history I had previously ignored. thanks again.

Submitted October 27, 2004

A

I never particularly liked Lancelot - thought he was a bit of a bore...The rituals? There is almsot no known reality. All we know of the Druids is what their enemies (the Romans) told us, and the Druids themselves left no written records of any kind, so most of it is invented - or at least embroidered on the very thin evidence available.

Q

Mr Cornwell Absolutely love your Sharpe series , and I would like to ask the following. Do you ever regret making Harper 8 years younger than Sharpe, thus making him illegible for the earlier books set in India? He would have been great as Sharpe's constant sidekick throughout. Nick R.

Submitted October 25, 2004

A

No - because the books worked well (says he) without Harper. It would have been nice if he could have been there, but there you go!

Q

Your new book the Last Kingdom was brilliant as ever. When is the next in the series due out? Have every book of yours I know of, my favourite has to be the Arthur series will you write more? what happens to Derfel? same question on the Starbuck books. You have a lifetime of work ahead of you but for my sake please finish it quickly. Tim Stanbridge

The Last Kingdom - Excellent, I would have finished it in two days if I had not been working. Any rough dates for the next one's release? Was there a character called Arthur in the book? You refer to Waella cousin of Arthur being killed, did you mean Alfred? I also liked the way you incorporated links from the Warlord Chronicles, such as the Princess being stolen and the thousands of dead because of her. Brilliant, it really makes me feel a link between the mighty Derfel and Uhtred. I have long felt that the Warlord Chronicles were going to be my favourite books of all time, I now think the Uhtred books will be up there along side. Please concentrate on more dark age books as I think that is what makes us both tick. Thanks Chris Pollock

I bought "The Last Kingdom" at Heathrow Airport on Friday and finished it by Sunday morning in Chicago. Mom is from Copenhagen, and my brothers and I get the biggest laugh when she calls us "dumb Americans (especially at the Thanksgiving table after a few glasses of red wine). My brothers and I believe we have some distant connection to the Danish explorers, and this has been reinforced during my many business trips to England and Scotland. I always find an excuse to have a colleague bring me to a cemetary (they think I'm morose). But the cemetaries are SO much older than any in the States. The stories they bring to mind are fantastic. I visited an old church building in the Midlands with a friend. He told me Vikings had plundered this place, and centuries later the legend lived on. Crazy as it sounds, I touched the stone walls and got a creepy, cold feeling. I'll never forget it. I can't wait for the sequel to "The Last Kingdom." Any idea when it might be released? Also, can you do your best to get this series made in to a movie! You characters are just as endearing as those in the "Lord of the Rings"...Kathee Pass

Submitted October 25, 2004

A

The next book in the series, tentatively titled The Shadow Queen, will be out, most likely, in October 2005. No plans for any more Arthur books - but I do hope to get back to Starbuck someday. Sorry for the typo - yes, I do mean Alfred.

Q

I'm still laughing at your response to the question of how Hakeswill escaped from the snake pit. Priceless! which got me to thinking. How in the world did you ever come up with that wonderful character? Had you ever heard anybody use that 'Says so in the scriptures' expression, or did it just come to you? Mike

Submitted October 25, 2004

A

It just came, but I'm sure I've heard people use it - I think the point is that whoever uses it is usually of a pious nature, so it seemed apt to give it to Obadiah, that most Godly of men.

Q

Bernard, Could you tell me, did the Duke of Wellington really invent the Wellie boot and if so when? David Brown

Submitted October 25, 2004

A

He did not, but he did favour a peculiar fashion in boots - they covered the knee in front, but not behind (so the leg could be bent for riding). That boot became known as a Wellington Boot as early as 1818, and in the early 20th century (why, I don't know) the name was transferred to what we call a welly. All very odd, and I can't offer a more cogent explanation.

Q

Bernard, I normally as for hints and tips on my writing, but I have a genuine query here. Now, reading the Last Kingdom, you mention the pillaging of the monastery at Streonshall near to Eoferwic. My missus was born and bred in Strensall and we're curious because we never knew there was a monastery there. Have you any idea where it was or where we could find more information about it? Cheers Bernard. Iain Culkin

Submitted October 25, 2004

A

I'm answering this off the top of my head - I think it was a nunnery? And the source is the late (and therefore suspect) Roger of Wendover. It seems highly likely that there would have been a religious house there, and equally likely that it vanished under Viking attack (lots of monasteries and churches disappeared in that period). Where was it? Not a clue! Probably under the bus station by now.