Your Questions

Hi Bernard,

 

I'm currently listening to the new audio adaptation of the The Enemy of God and again am completley blown away by your genius. (surly the knighthood can't be too far away now)

 

I've been a bit obsessed with trying to cast Uthred for the new TV series and wondered if you had an opinion? I've decided that Paul Bettany is the right man for the job.

 

I'm also sure that most Cornwell fans would love to see Sean Bean in a little cameo,

(Ragnar) so if you have any influence would you put a word in?

 

Please keep on going and thanks for the 100s of hours of pure pleasure.

 

Mike

Hello, I am just writing to tell you how much I have enjoyed your writing. I started with 1356 and then read Agincourt and then The Gallows Thief. I was aware of the Sharpe Series but was a bit turned off by the cover art and a bit intimidated by the number of books in the series. I did however eventually start reading the series and I am very glad that I did. I put the series right up there with the Hornblower books and the Aubrey/Maturin series. I enjoy the level of detail regarding the battles, the gritty and ferocious fights and the comedic interplay between Sharpe and Harper or his current damsel. Good work. Please keep it up.

 

One question, are you ever returning to Sharpe or are his adventures concluded?

John P

Dear Mr. Cornwell:

I am a long-time reader and letter writer. I am also an apprising novelist working on a prequel novel to a Civil War series and I ran into a bit of a bump with the plot. My main character is an Irish born immigrant who fights in the Mexican and Civil Wars after landing in Philadelphia. But the trouble is, I can’t find any record of regular army units recruiting from Philadelphia during the war with Mexico. There were some volunteer units raised during the war with Mexico but these were largely WASP dominated units that turned away immigrants due to prejudice.

I did however, find evidence that there was regular army recruiting in the city in 1836. A friend suggested that that was all I needed, evidence of it at some point. I know you've created fictional regiments and also slipped characters into real ones. I just wonder what you think. The branch of service recruited then isn't even the right one. Is my being a history major in university and wanting to find a historical prescient for this kind of stuff making me over-think things?

Adam Azzalino

Hi Bernard,

After reading a question submitted by Andy Holt, I'm also wondering about your involvement in TV adaptation of the 'Last Kingdom': I understand you also have a passion for acting and so would you be doing a 'cameo' role? By the way, I'm really looking forward to more of your novels being screen-played for television!

Robert Douglas

Hello Mr. Cornwell. I am an avid brazillian reader and fan. Since I've started the Saxon Stories I can't bring myself to read any books by any other authors. On the other hand I have everything you published in Brazil. So I have a few questions for you:

 

1) How is your opinions on Conn Igguilden's work? Since I became your fan his work is constantly recommended to me. Would like to hear your opinion on his best works.

 

2) Do you have any idea on how many books the Saxon Stories will end? Do you already know how it will end or you just write along?

 

3) The only book series by you I haven't finished is Sharpe. I read Tiger and Thriumph but in Brazil is hard to find all the books released and I am afraid. Do you know if there is plans of some sort of the pt-br Sharpe's getting a box of some sort?

 

Thank you for the many, many hours of reading.

Marcel Schiavini

Have you ever visited Bamburgh Castle and /or Durham Castle?????.

Really enjoy the books, Sharpe, Warrior Chronicles, Grail Quest, did Thomas of Hookton ever get married????? to his "heretic" lady.

Brian Raine

 

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Hi Bernard,

 

I'm eagerly awaiting your book on Waterloo. The battle has been one I have read much about myself, and having visited the battlefield with yourself in 2000 with the Sharp appreciation society, I can't wait to read your version of this very popular subject.

 

I'm attending the the Waterloo 200th Anniversary next year to see the celebrations and the re-vamped Hougoumont, which I donated to, and new visitor centre. Will you be attendeding at all?

 

Eddie (from York)

My interest is in the development of the consciousness and "progressive revelation" [which I believe to be by no means over]. Thus my rich interest in the journey from the most earliest known "pagan" to those spiritual traditions existing today.

Your note referenced above ( "The Grail Quest Legends...bear a striking resemblance to....heathen tales.....onto which Christians....their own pious gloss, thus burying a...tradition which now exists only in some very ancient and obscure lives of Celtic saints.") prompts my question: Might some of these last-mentioned sources be accessible [outside the Bodleian Library] to one who stands somewhere between layperson and academician? And/or could you point me in the right direction?

Sadly, you are a recent discovery in my life, but that discovery is via a collection of the Sharpe CD's owned and loved by a 97-year old friend from the Scot Highlands.  I picked up your historical fiction just a few weeks ago as I recovered from breast cancer in sore need of being smartly entertained/distracted...to get my head out of my own arse. My equal interest is in the history of monasticism.

Thank you, and I'm glad to have found you.

Cheryl Hendrick (March 9th, 1944)

 

Hello

 

This may sound like a mad question, since its still years to come within the series of your Uthred books, but do you think that Aethelflaed's expedition into Wales will be in any of the future Uthred books ?

 

PS - I recently named my new kitten Uthred. Though he has nothing of Uthred of Bebbanburg's violent nature.

 

Damien Silson.

Hello:

It has been a Cornwell summer---just finished reading 'Excalibur', 'Sharpe's Trafalgar' and 'Stormchild'. Right now I'm reading 'Sharpe's Prety', 'Stonehenge' and 'Fallen Angels'. My question is about the uniforms of the 95th Rifle Regt. Do you think the color of the uniforms influenced Berdan in the design of the uniforms for the lst U.S. Sharpshooters? I'm interested in your thoughts.

Betty Pannick

Gettysburg, PA