Your Questions

Q

Reading this book (The Pagan Lord) again and noticed you make a brief mention of Kettil and Eldgrim having a friendship going "far beyond mere liking" and Uhtred threatening anyone who questioned it (very progressive for a 10th century Lord!).  Are we to assume they were lovers?  If so I think may be the only time in your books you have included a gay character, at least that I can recall.  Was this common in this era, I cannot imagine the Christian Saxons approving!

Chris Horry

A

I think you can assume it, and everything else you say is correct – the church would have disapproved, which may be one reason why Uhtred didn’t care. Was it common? I imagine as common in that era as in any other!


Q

I just found out that there was another Sharpe book published last year.  I loved it!  Thank you for brightening up what has been a really tough time, for all of us.

I do have one complaint.  I have all the books on audio and listen to them repeatedly while driving.  I drive a lot so many of the through lines are fresh in my memory.  My favorite is Havoc/Escape where we see Jorge Vicente go from an idealistic lawyer to a pragmatic veteran.  By coincidence I was listening to Eagle the day before I read Assassin.  In Eagle there's a line after the capture of the colors about how unimaginable it was to march into Paris and recover the captured colors.  I think it would have been great to have that happen in Assassin, maybe during the epilogue so as not to get in the way of the action.

I know you said not to send ideas for legal reasons, but I would like to make a request.  In Rifles Sharpe has to prove his battle bona fides by commenting on his experience during the battles at Rolica and Vimeiro.  I would request that this be the next book in the series.  While I enjoy reading about the combined rifle and musket company doing battle (I believe Austrian light infantry of the age was also similarly composed) it would be good to read about a young Quartermaster Sharpe forcing his way into the action of a greater mostly rifles battle.

Jose Ferrer

A

It’s a possibility – that’s all I can say!

 


Q

I have read every book you have written at least twice. Have you considered a book about the Charge of the light brigade?

Les Rayburn

A

I have not, and probably won’t. For some reason I can’t find great interest in the Crimean War, though I did once stand on the heights above the valley where the Light Brigade charged.

 


Q

Hi,

Thank you so much for your books.  I have enjoyed reading and re-reading them - the stories and the historical details.

There's one small detail that has bugged me and I have meant to ask for some time.

In the Arthur books, buildings are constructed by using whole-tree posts upside down so they didn't rot so quickly.  It sounds strangely plausible, but I have never seen that anywhere else.  I wouldn't have noticed had you not described the process repeatedly in detail.

I was wondering if this was based on archeological evidence from the time or if it was one of your own details?  Fabulous detail either way, although I'd love it to be a lesser known real fact of course!

Kind regards

David

A

I discovered that from an archaeological report – long ago and I’ve long forgotten which one.  It makes sense though!


Q

Hi Bernard,

About 15 years ago in a camp site in France, I picked up the first of the Saxon series as a complete last resort figuring it was the best of a poor lot in the campsite library. Then found I could not put it down and I've read nearly all your books since, many several times. They're a bit addictive when you get into them. A question....can you say yet roughly where the next Sharpe book will fit into the series?

Willie

 

Well -  I read (listened) to all 21 of the Sharpe books in the last 6 months or so.  I'm sad they are over!  Had previously read the Arthur and Grail Quest books.

Needless to say - I'm a big fan.  Rupert Farley did a fantastic job reading the Sharpe series on the platform I subscribe to.

I'd read you'll likely do another Sharpe book at some point - my question is:  Will it be set after Sharpe's Devil - or will you slide it in along the way somewhere?

Thanks!

Brad H

 

Dear Mr Cornwell,

First I absolutely love the Sharpe books. The descriptions of everything really makes you feel you are there and makes it difficult to put the books down. One of the beauties of them is that they are written around actual battles and teach some of the history of the era.

Both my father and grand father were riflemen in the KRR. My Grandfather in the ninth brigade on the Somme in 1916 ( where won the MM ) and my father in the 10th brigade in the second WW.

Hence my fascination with rifleman Sharpe, the Napoleonic wars and flintlock firearms.

In fact I have my own flintlock pistol which I enjoy shooting at my local club. The kick is something to experience and the flame smoke and noise doesn’t even scratch the scratch as to what it was like on a Napoleonic battle field.

Having read and reread the books and about to start the latest my question is, Will there be any more Sharpe books slotted into the originals. There must be many battles he could have fought in.

Thank you for your time.

I will live in hope.

Yours

Clive Grievson.

 

A

The next Sharpe book - likely to be called Sharpe's Command will slot between Company and Sword.


Q

Hello Bernard! I hope you're doing well. I wanted to ask you a question about Ragnar (Uhtred's adopted father). Would Ragnar have been saddened to see Uhtred and Brida become bitter enemies? Especially because he had once intended for them to be married.

Best regards,

Joshua from Ohio.

A

I’m sure he would have been disappointed, and consoled himself that fate is inexorable and sometimes sad.

 


Q

Something that always intrigued me was the reason why Guinevere betrayed Arthur in such a way, in Warlord Chronicles.

I understand why she would sleep with Lancelot and I understand why he would want to sleep with such a beautiful woman, but I don't understand why she would ever sleep with Dinas and Lavaine as well. Especially because they did not believe in Isis, or did they?

Daniel

A

Oh Lord above, I wrote those books so long ago that I didn’t even recognise the names Dinas and Lavaine, which means I have no idea why she slept with them (separately or a threesome?). I can only presume that she was a lascivious young lady and I hope she had a good time!

 


Q

Hello Mr. Cornwell,

I'm writing to you from Germany just to tell you, what a great Story you've been telling over the years. Starting in 2004, the first part was published here in 2007, guess i followed it since then or maybe 2008.

What was it, that made this story to be more than just another viking story? Well, i call it the speed. It was the undertone, the story was told in every single part. It began with the tone of an old man and his first memories of childhood were fury and fast, just as childhood can be. Followed by the tone of a young man (testosterone heavy) in the next parts and going on. Uhtred getting older, getting settled, getting self-assured. I never found this anywhere else. Great thing, thank you, Mr. Cornwell.

Well, just finishing the last part in 2021, i recognised on tv, that in Bamburgh castle there was found an old sword dating back to the 7th century. Found by Brian Hope- Taylor in 1960 and refound after his death in 2001. Well, this sword is unic but it was never mentioned in the saxon series. Wasn't it? I guess, news about it were published after the series was out. What i really would like to know from you: How does this feel?

I mean, imagine someone getting this story on paper. The many strong and wild characters, the places, the weapons... Serpentbreath... Negotiations with publishers, the initial release and then you realise, there was a sword buried in that castle and it was not any sword, it was made of six strings, not four, a sensation of that time and of our time, it isn't older than Serpentbreath could have been but so outstanding, that anybody must ask: "How come, that Uhtred doesn't knew??", it has found no place in that story..... I'm not mocking at you, please don't get me wrong. That's what i felt. How was it to you? Did you felt like it is in a way ironic?

 

All the best, stay healthy

Ulrich

 

A

I was simply delighted that the sword was found, and that it was a pattern-welded blade like Serpent-Breath. I didn’t feel any need to put it in the books – there must have been scores of such blades in Bebbanburg and it could have been any one of them. The only ‘weapon’ that exists and is in the books is the small knife (not much of a weapon!) that Uhtred misplaced at Bebbanburg, which I mentioned solely because the archaeologists exploring the battlefield were kind enough to give me a small knife discovered there!


Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell

Many thanks for writing the latest Sharpe book – ‘Sharpe’s Assassin’ that I have just enjoyed reading.

I hope that you don’t mind but there is something that I would like to draw to your attention. You refer to the possibility of a guillotine being used at some point in Halifax, West Yorkshire, long before it’s alleged invention by that fiendish Frenchman. This is absolutely true and the device still exists in reconstructed form on its original site in Halifax to this day.

The reason that most people fail to identify this machine and its location is that it is referred to as the ‘Halifax Gibbet’, located on Gibbet Street just outside the town centre. The execution machine was installed in the 13th century to execute thieves who, by the scale of their activities, were endangering the developing textile industry and therefore the king’s revenue through taxation. The last execution was recorded in 1650 but at some point they must have got a bit carried away as the rate of execution apparently gave rise to the old Northern English prayer – ‘From Hell, Hull and Halifax good lord preserve us’. Not sure quite what Hull did to deserve inclusion but there you go.

Something I found fascinating is the fact that the peg that restrained the blade prior to its descent was apparently attached by a cord to any convenient farm animal (executions were carried out on market days) that when driven off released the blade to execute the criminal leaving no human to blame or, presumably, to bear the brunt of any criminal reprisals.

Interestingly the original blade from the gibbet, that resembles a rather large axe head, is preserved in the Bankfield museum in Halifax. Among other fascinating exhibits this excellent museum also displays the history of the Havercake regiment from its beginnings in 1702 as the Earl of Huntingdon's Regiment of Foot to its demise, when it was amalgamated with the Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire and The Green Howards to form the Yorkshire Regiment on 6 June 2009 providing another Sharpe connection.

Please keep up the good work and continue to provide my wife and I with meaningful reading material.

Yours sincerely

R. W. Duckworth

 

A

Thank you for that!  I was astonished to discover that Yorkshire led the French by some centuries in inventing the guillotine, but in fact it was used in other parts of Europe long before the French made it infamous. Thank you too for drawing attention to the Bankfield Museum, which I’ve never visited, but will!

 


Q

Dear Mr Cornwell,

I have always loved how the Uhtred books explore  the juxtoposition of Christianity and older Pagan (for want of a better word) beliefs. Have you ever considered a book about Penda of Mercia? As "the last pagan king in england" I've always been fascinated by his (barely recorded) story. A Pagan Angle allied with the Waelisc and bearing a brythonnic name raises all sorts of possibilities!

Dave Crook

A

I never have considered it, but you’re right – it does raise all kinds of possibililities, so consider it being considered now – but no promises!