Your Questions

Hi Bernard,

I've enjoyed your books for many years now and I hope for many yet to come (by the way, when will Sharpe march again or has he hung up his Baker for good?)....thanks for the many hours of pleasure they have brought to all your readers!

One thing that I have always wondered about and perhaps, as a person keenly interested in history, you have too. It is a little twist on the three wishes theme.....if you were ever given the opportunity to observe (not particiapte in) any three events in history, what would they be?

As a former soldier, I have always thought the last thing I would want to watch is a battle where brave souls meet their end or are maimed for life, but of course, they still hold a somewhat morbid fascination! However, steering away from the likes of Agincourt, Trafalgar, Issus and so on , I think for me, it would be watching what the original use was for Stonehenge, the Gettysburg Address and finally, seeing how the Mutiny on the Bounty really went down!. What events would you like to have the chance to see?

Cheers and keep them coming!!

Andrew Beddow

Hi, Bernard Cornwell (sorry for my english).
Have a possibility of in the future you'll write another book of a.C era (like Stonehenge)? If yes (or if no too), what nation of the world in a.C era you will like to put in a book?
Igor

This is NOT an idea for a book.  However, I know that your books are thoroughly well researched and so you may have stumbled across an interesting, ancient and venerable institution The Honourable Artillery Company in London (UK). It has a diverse (and crazy) 500 year history together with a usefully 'undocumented' further 500 year 'pre-history' (pre Charter of 1537). If I were a writer (and I am not) I would rummage around it ( or even come and visit the institution which is still there in Moorgate) and come up with an idea for a story. There. Not a story line! I'm not a lawyer either (although tragically my daughter is).
Keep churning out the good stuff!

All good wishes

MJH

Dear Mr. Cornwell

I have red almost all your books, translated in italian because my english is not so good and I liked them very much. There is a character that is worth your pen, english by birth but, after Crecy, italian in his story: John Hawkwood by us called Giovanni Acuto. In this letter I think I have been inside your guidelines, I am 72 years old and I have never wrote a book nor I will in the future. I thank you for the beautifull hours I had reading your novels and I send you my best regards.
P.R. Franzoia

Bernard,

you ended Sharpe very neatly, except what happened to Jane, and what happened to Sharpe's daughter? That would really finish it off. And you have left us in limbo with Starbuck. When can we expect the next Starbuck Chronicle? Make it soon,I am getting older rapidly.

Yours devotedly
Mike McDonald

 

Bernard
after enjoying the Starbuck  chronicles it left me feeling that there is still some unfinished business
Colin Morgan

 

Hi Bernard,
I have just finished reading The Pagan Lord, magnificent read as always. It was nice to see my home town of Chesterfield mentioned too. I always look forward to any new novel that you write with eager anticipation, because I know I'm in for a real treat. Do you have any plans to add to the Starbuck chronicles?
Again, thank you for all the fantastic stories you write. They have given me great pleasure over the years.

Yours sincerely

Mark Milward.

Is there any possibility that you could do a books with Cossacks in it?  The northmen did go down into Ukraine.
Mary Nelson

Dear Bernard of Bebbanburg,
I've just finished Death of Kings in your most excellent Warrior Chronicles. In fact I've read the entire series in just under three weeks. I am writing you because I have a question regarding continuity between The Burning Land and Death of Kings.
Upon taking the fort at Beamfleot Uhtred discovers a considerable hoard of gold and silver amassed by Haesten's marauding Danes in Mercia. In the next book though Uhtred is destitute living on loaned land? This caused me a great deal of confusion. What happened to all that plunder? Surely it was not returned to the Mercians who played no part in the battle. Were the spoils Edward's to distribute - or rather Alfred's as he was yet living? This question obviously did not detract from my enjoyment of Death of Kings and I am really excited to hear any news you may have of my favourite, somewhat aged, warrior's next adventure.
I think I'll pick up The Fort while I wait.
You should tackle 1812 if you ever run out of ideas - unfortunately a commercial opportunity has been squandered by the passing of the centennial. Nevertheless you have at least one, two if you count my father, Canadian fans who would love to read it.
Hope you're well or at least not too bad.
Sincerely,
Evan Clark

Dear Mr Cornwell,

please could you write more of sea thrillers?  My first ever book I read was Sea lord and I've read it several times,I find your descriptions and style of writing is so easy to read.You're obviously an experienced sailor.
looking forward to more.
regards Bill.

Hello there Bernard,

I have been a reader of your books for years now, first following Sharpe through Spain (you skipped my birth town San Sebastian, though, where the redcoats didn't behave so kindly after they won and would have only be fear to show their human nature and how they reacted after suffering so much to take the place, but I am digressing, sorry, didn't write to talk about Sharpe) and afterwards following the shield-walls. I had not read your the Arthur Books because that story has been told so many times in so many similar ways that I think many people of my generation has been oversaturated.

Still, I got into this web and I read it was your favorite work, so I went to Amazon and got them.

There are many things I have enjoyed in the reading, as usual, and things I have enjoyed less, as usual, I cannot but congratulate and thank you overall once again, but there are two things I would like to comment on, since this is a story you particularly care for.

This in not a trilogy. This is one single story I understand has been divided for commercial purposes only. I guess that is a free choice for both the writer and the editorial, but I think it is somehow a cheat. You cannot read just one part, you cannot alter the order. It is just a rouse to charge three times for one story. It is no doubt legal, but I don't think it is honest.

Nevertheless, knowing that beforehand I freely chose to buy the three books and found what I consider a mayor problem or concession in the quality of the story which is only at the service of this commercial division of the book. You repeat yourself a lot, explaining certain things that take place in previous parts to keep in the loop those people that are going to wait years before reading the succeeding ones. This is not only unnecessary for those of us who read the story straight away, it is annoying. We are not dumb, we remember. We do not need to be reminded of obvious important facts just because they happened in a previous part. Least of all, we don't need to be reminded twice, both in the second and in the third parts, of things that happen in the first.

I understand and can even share the idea of publishing one story in installments for those fans who cannot wait till the whole tale is written (though I am not one of them) and can understand those recapitulations, if there is a year or more between the publication of the parts, but after the whole story is published, it should have been rearranged in a single book and all those unneeded repetitions should be erased. Moreover if you have a special feeling to this story in particular.

Well, that is about it. Thank you for your patience and for your books.

Have a nice day,

Alberto Cobos
Eibar, Basque Country
Spain

Hi Mr Cornwell,

I and, it seems, rather a lot of others are intrigued by the stone you mentioned was in "Thunresleam" in the Saxon Chronicles books. I was quite keen to go take a look, but didn't want to get all the way there to find it was an invention! I searched and found that a whole bunch of people were discussing a stone that MIGHT be the one you're talking about, but nobody's quite sure!

Could you provide a conclusive ye or nay as to the stones existence and, if it does exist, tell us a bit more about what to look for?

Thanks very much!
Luke Nyland