Your Questions

Hello Bernard,

I very much enjoy your books, mostly for the historical detail which must take a great deal of research. So I need to query the appearance of sunflowers in abandoned gardens in SW France in 1356. It sounds picky (mostly because it is) but I think sunflowers as we know them today are American natives and it just stuck out at me as an anachronism. I wondered if you meant something else as the food references always seem so careful to be accurate.

Still enjoyed the book though ;-)

Best wishes

Rachel.

Dear Bernard,

I have in front of me a copy of The Daily Mail's Weekend magazine, dated 11th July '15, in which they assert that you have revealed your are to write a new Sharpe book based on the Battle of Sorauren in 1813. Having searched your site and found no mention of this, can you confirm, or deny, the veracity of this report.

Having read all your historical books, everyone brilliant, Sharpe remains my favourite character, so it would be good news indeed if you were returning to The Peninsular.

Regard

John Hill

London

 

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

I have just finished re-reading all the Sharpe books, which I greatly enjoyed [again]!  Will there be any new Sharpe books?

Best regards,

Bruce Kincaid

 

Hi Bernard,

I'm a great fan of your books. I've almost worn out my box set of Sharpe DVD's. I noted with interest that you are writing a new Sharpe story. Please keep me posted about when I can buy a copy.

Many thanks

Colin Burrell

I just finished Scoundrel and loved every page. I read on your site that you'll be sticking to the historical stories. I hope you reconsider. Unfortunately for everyone Scoundrel  was prophetic regarding Iraq and the "war on terror". Since 1992 a lot has happened. This is not a story idea, rather a request that one day we'll find out if Paul ever settles  with il Hayaween, and if he ever gets the girl.

Thank you for making it possible to contact you.

By the way, a bookstore owner here in the Seattle area met you a few years back at a panel of some sort and said you were a gracious gentleman. She owns Park Place Books in Kirkland, WA.

Its always nice to hear what people think.

Dark Blackwell

Hello Mr Cornwell.

I was just wondering if you managed to attend the Waterloo 200 celebrations and reenactment in Belgium a couple of weeks ago.I travelled over to Waterloo from Germany (where I now live) and enjoyed the whole weekend.I was delighted to discover that my viewing place at the reenactment was almost directly next to the 95th Rifles position on the battlefield.

Their officer was the spitting image of Sean Bean and chatting to the guys after the battle they told me that he get´s told that a lot and he really plays on it (getting the hair right and the swagger correct) So Sharpe really does march again !

Anthony Lambert

Hello Bernard,

Time and again, I see questions to you sort of repeated, whereby people ask you whether or not you've been thinking about writing anything new in a different time period - i.e. Roman times, War of the Roses etc... you always reply that you're not thinking about writing books on it. Are you planning to write anything new in a different time period? If you are, what IS that time period?

Danny

Have you ever given any thought to writing about the Plantagenet family, the Count of Anjou, whose family ruled England for 245 years??  I am your fan, and have read every book.  I am so interested in this history, because my family also came from Staffordshire England, and immigrated to the U.S.  We are the same age, but I was born here, second generation.  Love to read all you write, thank you...

Sid

Hello Mr Cornwell -

Hope you are well and look forward (hopefully) to another enjoyable event when you next visit the UK.

Just a thought that struck me when reading Nate's adventures - Is the Billy Blythe character based upon your own feelings towards a certain U.S President who was christened William Jefferson Blythe?

Best regards

Andy Green

I enjoy your work tremendously, and also appreciate your care in adding historical notes at the end. (The only book of yours that did not work for me was your work about Stone Henge). I trust you to write a good tale, especially one with historical roots.

Therefore what I'm about to say may sound strange, as I know history has limited applicability. But you've done such a wonderful with the Grail series, etc, that I'd like to suggest, not a story, not a plot, but a subject: Robin Hood. That should avoid any of your mentioned problems with lawyers, I dare hope. It is a subject I dearly loved growing up, and to judge by that truly bad and inaccurate 2010 film with Russell Crowe, the topic still has commercial appeal. I realize you're probably not struggling desperately for writing ideas/topics, but as a fan, I would be interested in seeing what life you can breathe into such an incredibly rich character (and his companions, of course). Other than Arthur, what greater figure of British folklore is there?

Just a wish, hoping I strike a cord, or bowstring, as the case may be.

 

Ralph

 

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

After reading the Arthur series I have come under the impression that you paint christian characters in a bad light compared to those who still hold the pagan gods. It seems that you made (with the notable exception of Galahad) all your christian characters to be either greedy churchmen or raving flagellants; or in the case of Mordred and Lancelot, only christian to garner the support of other christians. With this in mind, my question is, (and I ask this in the most respectful way possible) does this treatment stem from a personal bias? Are you in fact a pagan yourself?

Thanks and best wishes,

William Carrington

 

Hello, Mr. Cornwell

I'm currently reading The Burning Land and I have been a little confused with the stories timeline. For example, at the first chapters of the book, it is said that Gisela and Uthred's youngest son, Osbert, is 2 years old. However, a few pages later, Uthred says that he hadn't see Aethelflaed for four years. Assuming that the last time he saw her was at her rescue at the end of Sword Song, and that at that time Gisela was pregnant with her third child, and noting that Gisela said that all her three previous pregnancy were successful, how does her and Uthred's third child, Osbert, is only 2 years old? If she only had three children before, shouldn't Osbert be around 4 years old?

I look forward for your enlightenment on this matter.

Rodrigo Diniz