Your Questions

Having just read 1356 on holiday I was pleasantly surprised to see yet another mention of Towcester having also seen it mentioned in Death of Kings. I would love to know how a fairly small Northamptonshire Market Town figures in your writing when most people have never even heard of it, yet alone know about it's rich history - have you personal knowledge of our Town ?
Chris - A Towcester resident of many years !

Hello Mr Cornwell.

I have been watching the Sharpe series on TV for as long as I can remember, as I have a huge (and sadly unrequited!)  crush on the delightful Sean Bean, and even though my teenagers ridicule me I watch repeat after repeat. I' have now discovered them on Youtube too, so along with my boxed of DVDs I thought I was set for life.

However, whilst messing about on Amazon I discovered all the Sharpe series on Kindle and decided I had better start reading them in order. I have now purchased up to and including Sharpe's Gold, and I wanted to write to you simply to thank you for rescuing me from a diet of poor chick lit. Let me explain, I'm a 47 year mum of 5 who is rarely awake for long enough in the evenings to read anything of note, or anything that keeps my brain active. Hence the chick lit. But with the Sharpe novels I am transported to another time, and even though I know in my head that Richard will make it though to the end pages, no-one thinks to tell my heart, and I read with bated  breath.

I am also learning a lot about that period of history, and they do say knowledge is never wasted.

So, basically, this is a fan letter to say thank you. I do have just one question though. Now that Sean Bean has been so phenomenally successful as Sharpe, and you have been quoted as saying you wrote subsequent books with him in mind, do you ever regret describing him as you did originally, with black hair? It makes little difference to me, having come to the books after the TV, as I see Sean in my mind regardless, but I wonder if you have ever thought about re-writing the tiny descriptive parts?

Yours with gratitude, hoping this finds you well and content,

Karen Sellers (The Highlands, Scotland)

Mr Cornwell,

I have enjoyed reading this particular set of your novels perhaps more than any other book I have read. In fact, I have now just finished the series for possibly the seventh time! Your take on the Arthurian legends was an inspiration for me to study this period and visit some of the places that feature in the novel.

My question to you, if you don't mind my asking, is this. You have evidently given your permission for your books to be transcribed to audio which I know must have brought them to life for many people who perhaps aren't avid readers. Would you ever consider allowing them to be either televised or (ideally) made into feature films, or do you consider the imagination of these characters to be essential to the impact they have?

I appreciate you must be asked this question a number of times so I would not be at all offended if you do not find time to answer, however your books have had such a major impact on me I found it impossible not to ask.

Kind regards.
Matthew Freeman

Mr. Cornwell,

I really enjoy your books, especially the Thomas of Hookton and Warrior Chronicles series.  Three things to ask:
1) Any chance a TV show/series will be made about Thomas?
2) Have you thought about sponsoring some type of tour of the French battlefields/areas detailed in the Thomas of Hookton books?  I know you did your research there, but as I read the books, I have a desire to tour those areas, especially with an author, and listen to and discuss how historical fiction novels are conceptualized and written.
3) Were you asked to participate in, or were you consulted, during the filming of the TV series "Vikings"?  I keep expecting Uhtred to show up; perhaps next season?
Thank you!

Matt Shaner
Houston, Tx.

I have just finished reading 1356, (FANTASTIC) could not put it down.
I have read most of the Sharp Series, all of the Warlord Chronicles and the Grail Quest series, Azincourt, Stonehenge, Gallows Thief, A Crowning Mercy and Fallen Angels all very good reads, but will there be any more of Thomas of Hookton?
Terry Collins

 

Dear Mr Cornwell
I have just finished reading 1356.  Excellent storytelling, characters and, as ever, a compelling read.
The main character, Thomas of Hookton, is I assume the self same Thomas from the Gail Quest series (Also excellent; I am sure that you must get bored with all the compliments).  Will you be writing a prequel to 1356 to bring us fans of Thomas up to speed on the intervening years from the end of Heretic to the start of 1356?
If one is not planned might I ask you to consider this?
Can I end with a final compliment.  Loved the Starbuck Chronicles.  I have first editions of these and will one day send them to you (WITH return postage) and ask you to sign these.
Best wishes
Simon Galea

I am doing some research for who was allowed to read during the middle ages and I am having trouble finding resources.  If you could give me some ideas I would appreciate it.
Stephen Baker

Dear Bernard,

First of all I am looking forward with great expectations to your new book The Pagan Lord, I hope, and indeed fully expect, it to live up to be an amazing tale. Based on your previous books am sure this will be the case anyway, no doubt.
However I was curious as to how far into the future Uhtred will live, I always presumed that when the lords of Bebbanburg submitted to Athelstan, that would be when Uhtred would gain Bebbanburg back, and I also presumed he would have some kind of hand in the battle of Brunanburh as well before he died. I was sure this would be the case however when I looked at the brief description of your new book it lets us know that Uhtred would be going home to try and capture Bebbanburg, so I was slightly confused, however I am sure that I will find out when I read it.
However this got me thinking, that as Uhtred has to die at some point, then would that be where the Saxon Stories would end. I was curious because I would love to read your take on events after this time, for example the invasion of Cnut the Great. Possibly leading up to all the way up to the Battle of Hastings and the norman invasion. This would be my absolute dream. To have a series written all the way through from Alfred to William 1 would be fantastic, particularly if it was written by an author such as yourself. I do realise that you probably have other books you wish to write as well, and a complete novelisation of the years form Alfred to William would take an enormous amount of time, however I was simply curious about if you had thought that far into the future.
There is also one more thing I would like to ask you about, you said in your books that you treat Athelred a bit unfairly. I thought this the first time I read them, Athelred as far as I knew he was an effective ruler who worked well with Alfred and Edward. So I was curious as to why you have depicted Athelred in this way, was is to create animosity between him and Uhtred, or possibly to give Athelflaed an obvious reason to grow close Uhtred over time.

Kind Regards, and thanks for all the reading pleasure.

Hi Bernard

Firstly I would just like to say I'm a huge fan of your books, especially the Saxon Stories, and cannot wait to delve into Uhtred's next adventure.

I've noticed that you seem to utilise a simpler syntactic structure in the Saxon Stories than you do in your other work, with shorter, more succinct sentences. I've often wondered whether this is a conscious decision to emulate the Old English language, especially as the story is written from Uhtred's perspective in the first-person?

Also, I wondered whether you watched Michael Wood's excellent series on King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons? I believe one of Uhtred's descendants got a mention as the Earl of Northumbria during Athelstan's reign!

Regards

Richard

I realize we have progressed a long way since a noted Canadian novelist said,"I've finished except for the O.S.S." He explained that meant Obligatory Sex Scene. However, I noticed more attention was paid to the details of slashing and hacking than Sex. Frida produced a dead baby almost as an afterthought and Mildrid became pregnant almost like the Virgin Mary. Why the reticence?
Paul Jones

Dear Mr Cornwell,

Love your books. Read the Grail Quest three and all the Sharpes, and now swimming through Uhtred's stories. (I think he's my favorite of your protagonists, but that might be memory's trick.)

I do think you're a bit unfair to Christianity in your works. For every good churchman, you show us twenty bad ones. That goes along with fashionable culture as far back as Somerset Maugham's story about the priggish southseas missionary in The Hills of Kansas, and probably earlier. (Hollywood hasn't portrayed a kindly churchman since The Bells of St. Mary's!) Still, I wish you'd fight the fashion once in a while.

The Ten Commandments were a wonderful step forward for civilization. "Thou shalt not do murder" meant murdering ANYONE. Laws against murder before that were only constrained to one's own tribesmen. Uhtred chooses Wessex because he knows he'll always be a second-class citizen under the Danes, but also because of law, doesn't he? He sneers at Alfred's perpetual lawmaking later in the series, but he chose Wessex for order over the constant viking and chaos of the Danelaw.

Yes, the Christians themselves were often weak and sinful. The reason Ragnar takes it to the monks on Lindisfarena is a good reason. A good Cleric would have condemned them, too! (A pity one didn't pop up just then.)

But they're your books, they're great reads, and I'll continue to buy them.

The scene in Alban's church with Aethelflaed forced to drink dirty water was gripping - I loved Uhtred when he protected her dignity! (And when he threatened Aethelred and pummeled his bullying advisor.) Far-fetched that that bishop would dare strip Alfred's daughter, though! I was waiting for Alfred to get wind of it and replace him with Asser, but alas...

Your historical note on the fictional incident was bad. Sorry, it was bad.

Evangelical Atheists (their reason for being only that misery loves company) love to point to "cruel" injunctions in the Old Testament. Many of these were reforms of actual cruelties in society at the time. "An eye for an eye" sounds cruel today, but what to do with an eye-gouging boy? Too often the answer then was to torture him and his whole family to death.

A suspected adultress made to drink dirty water? And if her thighs and belly swell immediately, she's guilty? I'll bet lots of wives used that to escape beatings and murder. "Bring some dirty water, I'll prove my virtue!" Doesn't sound cruel to me, Mr Cornwell.

Thanks for hours and hours of entertainment!

Yours very truly,
Walt