Your Questions

Q

Hi there,

Earlier this year, I messaged you about a piece I was writing for university. I asked about research and the amount that goes into the actual piece. This semester, I'm writing about Cleopatra and I'm essay an accompanying on the difficulties with writing about famous historical figures. So far, I want to talk about the established conventions behind figures like Cleopatra, how primary accounts are often biased, and trying to achieve the balace between fact and fiction. Having written many famous figures in your books, I was hoping you might have some wisdom I could quote in my essay?

I'd really love to hear from you again; your comments helped me so much last time!

Warmest regards,

Emma

Submitted December 5, 2014

A

I think the only answer is to read everything you can about the character . . . with some, like Napoleon, there’s probably too much material, but still you read and read until you have a certain idea in your mind how that real person looked, spoke and acted. In other words – research, research, research. After that it’s simply a question of describing a character within the parameters your research have established. You probably won’t. for example, make the Duke of Wellington cuddly! And of course, because it’s fiction, you’re free to invent actions and dialogue, but if you’ve done your research properly it will be convincing!

Q

May I hazard a guess that your next novel will be a Bernard Cornwell take on the Spanish Armada of 1588?

Loving the Uhtred books,  impatient for more.

Regards

Alex

Submitted December 5, 2014

A

You can hazard the guess! It isn’t about the Armada though!

 

Q

Hi

I know you must get hundreds of requests for other Sharpe books, but I cannot get it out of my head that he has a daughter, Antonia in Spain.Could you not write a further book some years after Waterloo, when due to his daughter needs his help but as he is older, he needs to be somewhat wiser, perhaps to rescue her from an old enemy? Just a thought.Is there not a war after 1815 that Sharpe could be involved in?Kind regards

Ron Gough

 

 

Mr. Cornwell!

I'm a great fan of your Sharpe series and most anything else you've written and i've read, and i really look forward the continuation (hopefully?) of the adventures of Sharpe and Harper.I must say though, one thing i would have loved to have seen more of is Sharpe conducting his own battles! It would have been such fun to see what strategies and tactics Sharpe would have come up with when he was fighting larger scale battles. In addition to, of course, watching his plain old unyielding drive for victory and resolute leadership. Of course i understand the difficulties and limitations when working within historical fiction, and the 'historical' part being very well documented at that, so such scenarios are hard to come up with without veering too far into 'fantasy' land.

But just for fun, why not? What say you? How would "general Sharpe" have fared against the likes of Napoleon or Wellington on the battlefield? I can't imagine that he wouldn't have been a 'General Baird type', scything though the enemy on the front lines at the first opportunity, even if he should be a little more clever than that.

Danny

Submitted December 5, 2014

A

It’s possible, not immediately, but who knows? One day!

Again, maybe?

 

Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell, thank you for all your answers!!

I got another question to you: how do you feel about writing something (a story, a battle, a character, anything!!) that's already on another book? Have you ever had a brilliant idea for a book and found that someone already published it before? In your opinion, is it possible to write about something that's already on another book and be original, produce something new and valuable?

Again, thank you very much for all your answers! I'm very anxious to read The Empty Throne!

Maílson

Submitted December 5, 2014

A

Inevitably I’m following in other writer’s footsteps, but I try hard not to read their work so that I can’t be influenced by their plot or characterizations. And yes, I have had a ‘brilliant’, well good, idea for a book and found someone else has had the idea first! I’m writing one right now! And I wouldn’t do that unless I thought I had something new and original to say.

 

Q

Sir

Please explain the following quote from your book 'Wildtrack': "The accent was born of that bastard offspring of the Dutch language, Afrikaans."(p.23)

Thank you

Johan Potgieter

 

Submitted December 5, 2014

A

Afrikaans is an offshoot of Dutch. Way back it was called ‘Kitchen Dutch”. There’s nothing derogatory there, English is the offspring of Old High German (as is Dutch), and bastards? I’m a bastard and proud of it.

 

Q

Hi

,I am a huge fan and  I just want to know if we will ever see Constantin and Cellach back in the Uhtred series. In burning land uhtred observed constantin was only slightly younger than himself ( which I assume means that his birth was moved forward) and uhtred now regrets not slitting his throat, are we only going to see him when the real constantin came on the scene? Or is his timeline pushed forward?

Arman razak

Submitted December 1, 2014

A

I think we’ll meet again!

Q

Dear Mr.Cornwell.

I highly enjoyed your Grail Quest series and recently delved into The Saxon Tales a month ago. I have just finished The Empty Throne and am looking forward to the next chapter of Uhtred's adventures :)

I understand you visited Vancouver, Canada a decade ago and was present at the Writer's Festival at the H.R. McMillan Space Centre. Will you consider visiting Vancouver again for another book signing in the future?

Thank you for reading, and I thank you for creating such wonderful and phenomenal stories! All the best to you!

Yours sincerely,

Michael

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

 

Submitted December 1, 2014

A

I would love to return to Vancouver!  It's beautiful there!

Q

Hi Bernard,

first of all i'm a big fan of your books, second i'll apologize my self now if i say something wrong, i'm still learning english (i'm brazilian), so, i would like to know if you can tell me more about the 13 british relics, is there a myth about it? Thanks for your time and one more time, i'm a big fan of your work :)

Jairo Piekarski

Submitted December 1, 2014

A

Yes, there is, but honestly I made a lot of it up! There are references, but they’re extremely vague, probably embroidered by later authors, and generally all part of myth!

 

Q

'I am Odin. I have gained wisdom!“ I liked the dialogues in Uhtred's adventures.

Don’t you think an injury like a sword cut through an eye and face would lead to a deadly infection in these centuries?

What a fascinating recovery of Uhtred: is there any historic evidence that this method of healing has ever worked (stabbing someone with a sword)?

Christian Zier

 

Submitted December 1, 2014

A

Yes, there is evidence! And I refer you to my medical adviser who, unlike me, is a doctor! And yes, a bad wound could lead to infection, but not necessarily. At the battle of Quatre Bras in 1815 Ensign Christie took (I think) 22 wounds, including a lance through the eye that emerged in his mouth, and he survived and, frankly, medical knowledge of infection was no more advanced in 1815 than in 815! They did have some remedies that were surprisingly effective – spider-webs on a wound is one, and it works (to an extent). But it was really a question of luck whether a wound went gangrenous or not.

 

Q

Dear Sir

I ask this question to virtually every person I have met, worked with or trained over the years.........

If you could be placed in a room with famous historical figure, spend 30 minutes with them, and they would have to answer all your questions with complete honesty, do you know who it would be?

I don't expect you to say, who that is, but I wonder would it surprise you if I said, the overwhelming majority of the people said, they'd like to meet Hitler?  They'd lead with the primary question "why?/What made you believe you had the right?".

I used to want to meet a hero. It was Martin Luther King, I wanted to shake his hand, tell him what an amazing job he was doing and fight all urges to warn him about what happens to him.

But then I was convinced to never meet a hero, just in case you feel a little let down.

So I then changed it to Field Marshal Haig.  I would want to ask him questions along the lines of, would he have obeyed his own orders?  I don't know if you're familiar with Blackadder Goes Forth, but in the very first episode, there is a funny but possibly accurate (sadly) quote

"It was the same plan we used last time; and the 17 times before that"

Yes I know it was a sitcom and the former Education Secretary has accused Brits of basing our beliefs of WW1 on Blackadder, but i'd made up my mind on the man when i took secondary school history (i didn't appreciate Blackadder until i was in my very late teens/early 20s.

I'd basically want to know did he really think it was fair to give a man a choice between walking headlong into bullets, or be shot as a coward?

Lee

Submitted December 1, 2014

A

The choice wasn’t fair! It wasn’t meant to be fair. It was just inevitable. Me? The Duke of Wellington wouldn’t answer my questions because he detested authors, so I’d go for a much more enjoyable half hour. Nell Gwynne.