Your Questions

Q

Dear Mr Cornwell,

So sorry to perhaps bore you with this question as I'm sure you may have answered it before but I cannot find the answer! I have just completed the Sharpe Novels in Chronological order finishing Sharpes Devil just last month and I am desperate to know if there will ever be another Sharpe Novel as they are by far and away the most fantastic books I have ever read and being a British history enthusiast I would love to read one last adventure....just one more??

Kind Regards

John Moore

Submitted October 20, 2014

A

I think there's a good chance there will be one more!

Q

I had to let you know how much I am enjoying your book Waterloo:  The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles, it's wonderful.  You have captured the essence of the battle of Waterloo and the other battles around it.  I feel as if I know the people involved almost personally.  I love the eye witness accounts and I think you have been very fair in your treatment of all the different factions involved.  It is as if the 200 years between them and us have been wiped away.  I have recently begun reading the Sharpe books and I am already addicted to them.  I have come by a strange route to them, via 'Vanity Fair' and Georgette Heyer's wonderful  'An Infamous Army' and 'The Spanish Bride', the true story of Harry Smith.  It's a shame that Heyer gets ignored these days with her brilliant account of Waterloo in 'An Infamous Army'.  Have you ever read it?  I wondered if you might have, with your description of Lady Jane's golden dress at the Duchess of Richmond's ball in 'Sharpe's Waterloo', as Heyer has her heroine dressed in a similar way.

Susan Johnson

Submitted October 20, 2014

A

I have read them and like them - she's an interesting writer.

 

 

Q

Hi, Mr. Cornwell,

I'm from Brazil, so, sorry if my english is mediocre.

First of all, I really loved your Arthur Books (I have read it four years ago, then I decided to reread them today and still have the same magic for me), and Nimue is probably my favorite character of the whole trilogy.

I also love music and soundtracks in general, then, if someone asked you to define a theme song for the trilogy, would you be able to choose one? I tend to associate the story with some sad songs from Blackmore's Night. Because the whole thing is just so ... Sad. And... Amazing. I really cried a lot at the end of it. Poor Derfel...

Sorry if this is a strange question. LOL

Eilton Ribeiro

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

Probably something by Enya?  In fact, certainly something by Enya!

 

Q

I am eagerly awaiting release and just read the excerpt of Waterloo:  The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles and got confused. I was under the impression that 42nd Highlanders referred to a Regiment not a battalion. Yet you refer to  them and others as battalions. Which is correct?

 

Thank you.

Capt Dennis Schroeder

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

Ah, you just read an excerpt!  Here’s another excerpt for you (from the Preface):

I have added to (the confusion) by using the words ‘battalion’ and ‘regiment’ to mean the same thing, when plainly they do not. The regiment was an administrative unit in the British army. Some regiments consisted of a single battalion, most had two battalions, and a few had three or even more. It was extremely rare for two British battalions of the same regiment to fight alongside each other in the same campaign, and at Waterloo only two regiments had that distinction. The First Regiment of Foot Guards had their 2nd and 3rd battalions at the battle, while the 95th Rifles had three battalions present. Every other battalion was the sole representative of their regiment, so if I refer to the 52nd Regiment I am meaning the 1st Battalion of that regiment.

 

The 42nd was a single-battalion regiment, so the terms really are interchangeable. I hope that helps!

 

Q

I noticed in Pagan Lord that you now list Charleston, SC as one of your residences.  Are you by any chance related to Roonie Cornwell, whose family used to live on Colonial or some other Street near Savage St. near the Battery (S of Broad)?

I've never had a chance at your books because I had a heavy load of courses as an Anatomy/Physiology Instructor.  Mary Boyd Hart of 6 Savage gave me the first 4 books of Saxon Tales and I look forward to more of those as well as some of your other work.  I've been recovering from cancer and they have lightened the load.of boredom.  It's good to be home for a while.  Please keep it up.

Paul F. Teller

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

I certainly don’t know if we are related, though I suppose all the Cornwells are linked if we go back far enough!  My branch of the family came from East Anglia in the UK and migrated to London sometime in the 19th Century . . . I have a feeling the Charleston Cornwells are much more distinguished!

 

Q

Do you ever get annoyed when your books are compared to others, such as when critics say other writers' books have 'all the hallmarks of Cornwell', or when the Civil War books by Michael Arnold were marketed as 'the Sharpe of the Civil War'?

Aiden Kelly

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

I don’t mind! It means my name is on their book, but their name isn’t on mine?

Q

Dear Bernard,

Please explain why wasn't Alfred's requirement that his field commanders be literate extended to Steapa?

Wouldn't Alfred have been particularly insistent that the commander of his Household Guard should be capable of receiving and issuing written reports?

When will we be able to see the Warrior Chronicles at the movies?  Please chat with Peter Jackson!!  :)

Cheers,

Wayne

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

Oh probably. I imagine Steapa lied. Except that as head of the household troops he’s rarely far from Alfred, so he doesn’t need to be sent letters.

 

Q

I read all your books set prior to the age of gunpowder, I always thought the era of muzzle loaders represented the lowest point of stupid infantry tactics. Why else would the french be so good at it? But after finally reading the Sharpe novels I have a better understanding and appreciation for the tactics used.  I have tried to find battles where a british rifle regiment encountered 1st United States Rifle Regiment armed with1803 harpers ferry model with no success. Also do you know of other non british or american elite rifle units of the time.

I know we are not supposed to send book ideas but these are very broad and not my  ideas, i just want to put my vote in for these settings.

A saxon in the varangian guard after the norman conquest. It's been done before but I think you would do it best

Thomas going to Italy with the Hellequin to fight as a condottieri

Dan

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

I don’t know of any, sorry!

I’m getting old, time is short, I won’t say it won’t happen, but it isn’t likely, sorry!

Q

Hello Mr Cornwell,

Firstly I would like to say thank you for many hours of enjoyable reading. I am always eager to read more of your books and am very close to reading them all. After reading all of the Sharpe books i decided to read around the topic of the 95th and came across a marvelous book by Mark Urban, "Rifles" i am certain you will  have read it. His account of the history of the 95th during the Peninsular Campaign reads very much like a Sharpe adventure.

My question is this, Urban claims that the sword bayonet would be used for many jobs except bayoneting people, claiming the soldiers saw it as a hindrance rather than a killing tool. do you agree with his statement here or do you feel it was used to great effect as a weapon of war?

Many thanks,

Luke Fieldhouse

Submitted October 10, 2014

A

I know and like the book very much. I think Mark is right in saying that the Rifles used the bayonet rarely; they were skirmishers and rarely fought in close-combat formation (though under cavalry assault they formed square like everyone else, and God help them if they didn’t have their sword-bayonets fixed).  But that doesn’t mean the bayonet was not used – the 92nd (I know, not Riflemen) defeated one column of d’Erlon’s attack at Waterloo with the bayonet, and you can be sure that any Rifle skirmishers (and there were some) caught up in that mess were using bayonets too!