Your Questions

Mr. Cornwell,

Just read the new book and I think I have read all of your work.  You may know this already:  on page 69 in the middle of the third sentence of the second paragraph you say that Wellington rode rode three miles west to meet Blucher at Brye.  Isn't Quatre-Bas west of Brye?  If so then shouldn't he have ridden east?

Brooks Nelson

Hello Bernard,

I am a big fan and have all your Sharpe books and you signed one for me in Halifax a few years ago. My wife and I attended the Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo in June. We had a wonderful time. I have a question for you about German Mercenaries being part of the Allied Army. I know that that there were Nassau, Hanoverian and Brunswick troops involved but the Belgium announcer at the re-enactments stated serval times that some of these were paid mercenaries in the Allied army. I read your book on Waterloo and several others to find out if this was true or not with no success. I don't think this is correct so with all your research could please enlighten me.

Cheers

Rob Fraser

I am a huge fan of all of your historical fiction series', though The Warrior Chronicles are my favorite. I am curious to know if you have a set idea or plan for how many novels will be in this series when it comes to its inevitable (if unfortunate) conclusion.  I am eagerly awaiting book 9, which I won't see until january since I live in the US. That being said, I look forward to starting the series again from the beginning and reading them all straight through to the very end when the final book is being released. Thanks for your time and for many hours of reading enjoyment.

Ethan Teed

Mr. Cornwell,

let me first say, that I love your books and have given me new information to embellish my own Tidwell genealogy.  According to research, Tidwell comes from the name of a location known Tidi's wall or Tidi's well.  Tidi, was allegedly a Saxon Chieftan (circa 730 AD)  in the area now called Tydeswell in Derbyshire England first mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086.  The first recorded Tidwell is Henry de Tydeswell in 1273.   There is very little information other than this and your books have given me a wealth of information about the Saxons, Danes, etc during this period.   My question and don't know if you can answer it or not:  I know that surnames did not come into common use until after the Norman invasion by Willian the Conqueror in 1066 (at least that's what I remember from some source).  Assuming someone would be named Henry of Tydeswell based on being from the Saxon village of Tydeswell, would they eventually be called Henry Tydeswellf (or Tidwell) and if so how would a second Henry of Tydeswell be called....unclear on this issue.  I would appreciate your thoughts on the surname issue.  So would I be right in assuming that the Tidwell genealogy began with someone from Tydeswell (Tidi's Wall)?  I have followup questions if you can answer this one first.  Thank you for GREAT reading.  I am reading the CD audio versions on way to and from work (2 hrs round trip) every morning.  I am on the 4th in the series for the second time around.

Michael

 

Have you ever considered a book on The Peasants Revolt, having read all your Thomas of Hookton stories, I think there's a good yarn in the above mentioned.

Stan Phelan

 

Hi Bernard,

I was wondering what you think of fan fiction? And are you aware of anyone writing any based on your works?

Rick

I think that Richard Sharpe's father is the Scottish criminal John the Painter seeing as he was active in British dockyards I.e Wapping where Sharpe was born and died in his year of birth 1777.? Am I right?

Ciro Morant-Hennessey

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

I have read all of your published (in the U.S. Works). Thank you very much for your magnificent body of work.

Have you ever considered writing of the British experience in Africa?

Regards,

Ted Good

Hello Mr. Cornwell,

My name is Joe Hammer, and first I wanted to say thank you for writing such a wonderful series that is The Saxon Stories.  Uhtred, and the rest of the cast with every novel, is so well thought-out, and your ability to tell such an engaging narrative while being historically accurate is nothing short of astonishing.  I recently finished The Burning Land, and had one question for you.

 

The death of Gisela was a gut punch, to be sure.  You captured Uhtred's initial torment extremely well - we had known her since book three after all!  I was curious why you did not include her funeral?  That seemed like it would've been an interesting way to display pagan culture with burials.  I'm just asking because I was a big fan of Gisela, and since Uhtred obviously loved her deeply, it was curious (to me) that her funeral was left out of the narrative.

 

Again, I can't get enough of this series, it is truly amazing.  Thank you for writing such outstanding novels and I can't wait to read the next Uthred tale!

--Joe Hammer

In your Arthur series you refer to them wearing iron breastplates quite a bit, do you have any historical examples as inspiration for this? Late Roman muscle cuirass' maybe? I normally think of most warriors from this particular period as wearing maille and was curious as to your choice there.

Ben Batten