Your Questions

I am trying to get some sense of the origin of our "Cornwell" family history in England. If you have any idea of who/how came to the colonies it would help as well.
Reid Cornwell

I love your books , particularly the Warrior Series currently, I am half way through Pagan Lord, currently shivering in Buxton, which I know quite well and I have a question.
These days none of us in the UK can imagine life without a well insulated roof and C H - and here are Uhtred and Finan finding shelter in the lee of and oak wood!! So have we all become softies? Didn't 10th century folk feel the cold?
Can't wait for the next and I fear final book in the series- is it already started?
Best wishes and thank you for hours of pleasure,

Jill

Hello! Truthfully I have been trying to figure out a proper way to contact you but finally resorted to this. Long story very short, I am a huge fan of your books, and a history major at Weber State University, and I need your help.

I am prepping my senior thesis paper about the rise of lawyers through and with the renaissance in Europe (the primary Italian one that spread throughout Europe circa 15th century BC). In my paper I am trying to argue that lawyers became elevated from this event, but also helped to elevate the Renaissance in turn. HOWEVER! While I was reading the archer series, I encountered your character (the sneaky lawyer) who was privileges enough to contact the king himself, and this was before I thought that to be realistically possible.

If my paper is false in any matter, I would prefer to hear it from you than the board of Social Science members that might read it. I was wondering if you have done any specific research to encounter lawyers from 1300-1500's to show how they elevated through society. If you would like, I also have a draft that I can supply for a better idea if needed.

Again, I am a huge fan (especially of the Archer series, and Agincourt) and would be honored if you could help me in any way at all.

Sincerely,
Nicholas
WSU, College of Social Sciences

Hi Bernard,
Just finished The Pagan Lord - Brilliant! I eagerly await your new books, particularly this series. I do also feel the Arthur series would make a great film.
I live in Danesford, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, which is about 15 miles west of Tettenhall, in fact I have relatives buried in Danescourt Cemetery there. It sounds like there are quite a few Danes buried somewhere near as well!
My query is the translation of Wodnesfeld as present day Wednesbury. I would humbly suggest that it may refer to Wednesfield, which is just east of Wolverhampton, and a lot nearer than Wednesbury. I do take your point about the variation in spellings in ancient times though.
It's great to have somewhere local feature in a major book anyway.
Kind Regards
Robin Perks

Just finished a riveting read of The Pagan Lord.. However it's more likely to be modern day Wednesfield which is much closer than Wednesbury. Can't wait for the next book
Phil Viol

Hello, distant cousin of some kind by way of Uhtred of Northumbria!  I now have a new e-mail address, one that I finally am revealing outside of my immediate family, a long time after my computer was hacked, and some awful things attempted by an extortionist...I won't trouble you with that story, or the significance of the new e-mail (It relates to my service in Vietnam, but I tell that story only if asked, so you're free on that one!). I also won't go into everlasting g detail on how many health issues my wife and I have faced this year, except to say that finding more of your books to read has been a very welcome escape, to rest my weary soul at a time I very much needed that rest.
I confess we have been buying them at a used book store, at a much reduced rate (which helps, as income as a disabled veteran doesn't stretch as far as it might). Do such re-sales count in the totals when they are counting up for the best-seller lists?
Now to my question: I've just read "The Winter King", in which you once refer to Excalibur by its name from Welsh legend, Caledfwlch. I am of Welsh descent on my mother's side, and still correspond with cousins in Gwynedd,North Wales, on occasion. I once asked the one who is most knowledgeable about Welsh history and tradition if Caledfwlch did indeed translate to English as "Hard Lightning" (by far the coolest and most appropriate-sounding meaning I've heard, cognate with the legendary Irish sword of similar name--Caledbollt, I think it was, in Irish Gaelic??), but he stubbornly insisted that it *had* to be translated into the clunky English words "Hard Gap".  I asked if that could be taken to mean something like "strong opening" (as in a shield wall?), but my stubborn Welsh cousin insisted on "Hard Gap". How "unpoetic"! And to think my Mom's father once won a prize at an Eisteddfod!
Well, did you go with "Hard Lightning" because you found better sources, or was it poetic license, and it just sounded better in an epic tale?

 

I also read "The Fort" a while back, and paid full price for it, and found it's depiction of how wars get fought to be disconcertingly like my experience in Vietnam!
Blessings by whichever God(s) you revere, and *please* keep writing!
Dave Finster

I want to start by saying I'm a huge fan of all your stories especially Sharpe's.  I've always been fascinated by the battle of Rourke's drift, any thoughts about doing a story around that improbable battle?
Matt Rivest

Hi,

I have just finished reading THE PAGAN LORD and I thought the book was amazing. The last few pages were among the greatest in the series!Is it possible you can give a rough estimation of when the next book in the series will be out? Thank you so much for writing the series, it is an absolute pleasure to read.

Sam Choro

 

I loved  The Pagan Lord and hope that there will another one in that series for a conclusion for Uhtred  If so when can we expect it?

Marlene Fogarty

Dear Mr. Cornwell,

When we moved to Arizona from NY 10 years ago it was not feasible to take our library of hundreds of books with us.  Unfortunately, our full Sharpe collection was among the casualties.

Without them, I have desperately trying to remember the name of the group of men Sharpe leads in his near-suicide sieges of fortresses.  Could you please help me while I eagerly await the latest travails of Uhtred.

Thanks,

Bob Rothenberg

As with all your books you manage to introduce a person who is unlikable and becomes and continues to be a bane to the main characters in the story. I'm not asking for help in creating a character but would ask you about their placement within a story. I have one who is noticed out the corner of main character's eye and sees the contempt on his face the man thinking he is unnoticed suddenly changes to a sycophant when he turns to look at him. Or is that a too sudden a change. As to the plot being copied, it's me that's copying you in a way, this man is like Obidiah Hakeswill it's not him but like him, I worked with someone like that and still to this day I despise that man. So please don't think I am asking for validation or anything other than a genuine question that I would ask you in person.

Jim.

I am enjoying your Richard Sharpe series.  How did the British ever lose the "Revolutionary War" in America?

I am a high school History teacher.  Did you write a Richard Sharpe book where he fights in America?

Thank you for the great reads.

-Bard Salcido