Your Questions

Q

Dear Bernard, i was just wondering if you are scheduled to return to Bovington camp in Dorset to speak again. big fan , all the best

Oliver Drew

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I don't have any talks scheduled there . . at least not now, but I'm sure I will be back sometime. I hope so, it's a great place.

Q

Hello Mr Cornwell, I'll start by adding my thanks (to the thousands you've already received, deservedly) for the many hours of reading pleasure you've given me. I have a question that's been simmering in my mind for years now: In a battle in one of the Sharpe books - was it Waterloo? - a rifleman has his foot removed when attempting to stop a slow rolling cannonball - and receives short shrift from his sergeant for his stupidity, if I remember correctly. I was quite surprised by this at the time and I wonder if you a) remember the event and b) have the science for how it could have caused such a devastating injury? Thanks again, and I wish you an everlasting supply of inspiration.

Stuart Reynolds

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I don't remember which book, but I do recall many instances of the warning - from contemporary documents. A cannon-ball rolling at the end of its trajectory looked simple to stop, but it still retained a lot of kinetic energy so the advice was not to try and interfere!

Q

Do you think Mr. Sharpe and Patrick ever had any adventures in Japan while it was isolated from the rest of the world during the Shogunate?

Tom McKeon

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I'm absolutely positive that they didn't!

Q

Mr Cornwell, I have just recently gotten into the Sharpe series both the books and the movies and I was curious if there any plans to continue Sharpe's adventures and if so when would the new books be released?

Mitchell Newell

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

There will be more Sharpe, but not for a few years.

Q

Hi I recently enquired as to whether there would be more Starbuck and the good news was that you do plan to return to Nate and to deal with that good for nothing Billy Blythe! My question is, if I started a good natured campaign to make Starbuck your next book (after a return for Thomas of Hookton) and encouraged readers to email in their support, would that have any influence on your decision on what to write next? Yours slightly cheekily, Peter

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I'm afraid the next book has to be another Uhtred, but I do promise I haven't forgotten Starbuck . . . really!

Q

Hi, Bernard. I asked you a question about Starbuck a month or so ago, but now I have a question about Sharpe. In many of your Sharpe books you mention officers giving the order to fix bayonets. For many years I had never noticed this, but upon re-reading in the series I have. According to a friend of mine, by that era line-infantry would fight battles with their bayonets already fixed, but I argued that that didn't seem likely in accordance with your description of the scraped knuckles from such reloading. Had you done research into this subject, and did they indeed fight without bayonets fixed for the most part?

Joseph Calderon

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

They did not fight with fixed bayonets unless, for instance, they were in square. A seventeen inch bayonet at the end of a musket would make the weapon far clumsier to handle and much more difficult to load (twenty-three inches for a Baker Rifle). And once plug bayonets were superceded by the newer design it really did not take long to fix a bayonet ('sword' for a Rifleman), so no, as a rule they fought without the bayonets fixed. The bayonet is a great psychological weapon so it's certain that at times, say during an attack, the blade would be fixed to scare the enemy, but in a normal infantry versus infantry firefight it would stay in the scabbard.

Q

Hello Mr Cornwell, I'll start by adding my thanks (to the thousands you've already received, deservedly) for the many hours of reading pleasure you've given me. I have a question that's been simmering in my mind for years now: In a battle in one of the Sharpe books - was it Waterloo? - a rifleman has his foot removed when attempting to stop a slow rolling cannonball - and receives short shrift from his sergeant for his stupidity, if I remember correctly. I was quite surprised by this at the time and I wonder if you a) remember the event and b) have the science for how it could have caused such a devastating injury? Thanks again, and I wish you an everlasting supply of inspiration.

Stuart Reynolds

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I don't remember which book, but I do recall many instances of the warning - from contemporary documents. A cannon-ball rolling at the end of its trajectory looked simple to stop, but it still retained a lot of kinetic energy so the advice was not to try and interfere!

Q

Bernard! Regarding your latest Uhtred book, the Death of Kings as you have stated the location of the Battle of the Holme is unknown other than that it took place somewhere in East Anglia. You located it in your novel along the valley of the Ouse between Bedford and Huntington. A very logical choice! What caught my eye was that there is a place between Huntington and Peterborough (both Roman and Saxon-Danish settlements) called Holme, in the valley of the Nene as it becomes tidal and along Ermine Street (which skirted the Fens). We know that the Saxon and Danish armies of the time used the old Roman road network for their lines of advance and retreat. Any army consisting of Danes from the 5 Boroughs and Northumbria together with those of East Anglia would use Ermine Street (London-York)for their line of communication as indeed would a Saxon army from London ravaging East Anglian/ eastern Mercian territory west and south of the Fens and around Cambridge and Huntington. Just a coincidence? It does make for a good fit. I wonder whether any archaeological digs in the area have shown any relevant results! Mike

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I don't know of any archaeological excavations that might help establish where the battle took place - and sadly there are so many 'missing' battlefields (Mount Badon and Brunanburh being the obvious British examples). And it's odd how, even when we think we know where a battle took place, archaeologists can change that certainty as they did recently at Bosworth Field. I suppose ancient battles leave two obvious traces; burial pits for the common soldiers and metal, but any metal left at the Holme would have been efficiently scavenged and re-used, and I suppose the burial pits have never been found.

Q

Hi again Mr. Cornwell. I know you don't know for certain, but it seems likely to me that you won't write anymore of the Starbuck Chronicles until you are finished writing Uhtred's saga. Is this probably the case? Alan Kempner

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I think that's very likely, yes, but not set in stone

Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I am listening to Death of Kings and am loathe to reach the end for I know there will be no more of Uhtred's adventures for a while. Since I am listening, I am not sure of spelling, so forgive any errors I make, please. What I am confused about is that in the other Saxon books he is Uhtred of Bebenburg, but in this book he is Uhtred of another place...skips my poor 65 year old brain at the moment. Why is that?

Can you recommend a good history of that period in England's history before it was England? Are any of the fortresses mentioned in the books still standing? Ruins? Thank you so much! By the way, I live on the Cape as well. Are you going to be doing any book signings in any of the cape cod book stores? Vicki

Submitted February 27, 2012

A

I'm not sure why they made that change in the audiobook???

I suppose the classic history of Anglo-Saxon England is the one by F.M Stenton, but that might be a little dated. I like James Campbell's book (from Penguin), 'The Anglo-Saxons', and Justin Pollard's 'Life of Alfred' is well worth reading (and use the bibliography to find more). Many of the fortresses are still standing, though they'd be unrecognisable to a Saxon warrior - Bebbanburg (now Bamburgh) was overwhelmingly built from earth and timber, but in the post-Saxon period it was transformed into a stone castle, and that's more or less true of any of the forts. You can still see the Saxon earth walls at Wareham in Dorset which, other than Offa's Dyke, are the only Saxon fortifications still standing. I'm told there is a stretch of unexcavated Viking wall at Shoeburyness in Essex, but I can't confirm that. Of course most of the forts vanished over the centuries, but those that remain were all rebuilt in stone and that's what we see today.

No Cape Cod book store signings planned, sorry!