Your Questions

Q

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I have thoroughly enjoyed your books. I am sad that I have finished the Sharpe series (it feels like ending a friendship!). I am still waiting to get Uhtred back to Bebbanburg! Will you be writing more of the Saxon Series soon? Thanks for the hours of entertainment you have provided me! Many a plane ride has passed with my friends of your imagination! John Schmidt

Looking forward to another enjoyable Saxon story. Any hint on when we can expect another; hopefully this year? Thx JD

Dear Bernard, You are an amazing writer and I wanted to thank you for the Saxon tales. I picked up "The Last Kingdom" around Thanksgiving and will be starting book 5 tonight. I hate to think of it coming to an end. Please tell me there's a 6 in the works!! Thanks again, Brian

Will there ever be another book in the saxon stories??

Mike Jewell

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I only want to know whether there will be a 6th book in the The Saxon Stories? I greatly appreciated the historical background which I find fascinating and would love to read more about what happens to Uhtred as well to the political scene at that time. Thank you very much for your time With kind regards Jenny Knight

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

I am working on the 6th book of the Saxon stories now. Hope to have it ready for publication later this year.

Q

will you ever write about roman legions, greeks, germanic wars, or carthage. was sent first 3 saxon stories and arthur books at marine boot camp when injured. were very popular books. got me out of firewatch for 2 weeks when i loaned them to the scribe (recruit responsible for forms and paperwork including firewatch)thanks.
W.

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

It's not likely, but never say never....

Q

I very much enjoy your series and have read most, will you be doing anything the Starbuck Chronicles and will there be more Saxon Stories I am interested in Uhtred's progress

Newt Newman

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

I am writing Uhtred's next book now. And I do hope to get back to Starbuck before too long.

Q

Hello Mr. Cornwell, having enjoyed The Grail Quest books, and due to start The Arthur Books.I Was wondering if you had come across a book by Eric Jager called the Last Duel,a true report of a trial by combat in 1386 Paris it was a good read almost up to your standard.It is published by Arrow books Thanks again for such good reads. James

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

I have read it, and enjoyed it, thank you!!

Q

Arthur Wellesley must know who Sharpe's father is otherwise he would never have made him officer or gazzete him Captain and then let him become Major or serve as a LT colonel with him in Waterloo. He is Quoted as saying that it is wrong to allow soldiers to join the officers mess from the ranks. He looked down on poor people as inferior. He must have been aware of his background and his father's lineage to promote him. Am I right sir?

Kyle Prince

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

I don't think a knowledge of a man's father was important! You're right that Wellington disliked promoting men from the ranks ('they always take to drink'), but he did it all the same, and the qualifications had nothing to do with birth, but only with competence and literacy. By Waterloo there was a substantial proportion of officers promoted from the ranks and, believe me, that could never have happened if legitimate birth was a necessary qualification!

Q

Dear Sir, I am so impressed to see your site. Stuart told me you are authoritative on Medieval history. All I want to do is be a friend and get an answer. Your Uhtred of Northumbria. Could this possibly be of the Uchiltrie-Ochiltree ancestry of the Saxon stories ? My ancestral lines are the Ochiltrees of Of Ochiltree and Ayrshire. I cannot get a detailed history nor can I bridge the Atlantic Crossing after the Culloden. I have read Prebble, the Peerage, random peerages of old history. I cannot seem to tie it in. All I have been to make sense of is the Alexander Alan Oochiltree of Renfrewshire...his three sons came to America but there is absolutely no records of passage. Sorry to be so windy...I love history. Thank you..and Sincerely. LuRose Williams San Marcos TX

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

Uhtred of Northumbria is part of a real family, that still exists, and is pure Angle rather than Scots. Their ancestor was Ida the Flamebearer who, in the 6th Century, captured Bebbanburg (now Bamburgh) and the family, called Uhtred, held that fortress till 1016. The family now spells the name Oughtred and their genealogy doesn't have any mention of the Ochiltree connection, so I suspect they're not related.

Q

Just finished reading The Fort. WOW! One question, is there any information on James Fletcher after the war? Thank you.

James O'Conner

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

Not really - he was fictional, and I guess his future is up to me... he lived happily ever after?

Q

A Happy New Year to you Mr. Cornwell, I am studying English Literature and History at Göttingen University (Lower Saxony, Germany) and lately do work on Old and Middle English Texts. Well I have not decided to study my subjects because of your novels, but they have definitely helped me through some really boring Chaucer or Beda moments. Currently I am deciding on a theme for a termpaper. Lately I already did an essay on "The Alliterative Morte Arthur" and got aware of some similarities between the world of that and your Arthur. Both are "a little" more realistic in my eyes, though yours is noble and his corrupt but that's not the point. Before I start working on this termpaper, I would like to ask you if you got inspired by this novel in one or the other way. To end I would like to express my respect for your way of writing and my hope that you will find time to write a lot of more books in the next years. In any case thank you very much! Heiko Teigelkötter

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

I'm not sure how influenced I was by the Alliterative Morte d'Arthur (what a clumsy title!). That poet, if I remember rightly, has Arthur as a Christian, which I certainly rejected (on the basis of the Welsh Saints' lives), but you're right that he sets the tale in a much more realistic world than other medieval accounts, and I certainly tried to do the same, so in that respect the two tellings are alike.

Q

Hi once again, Mr. Cornwell. You have said you would someday like to write on the Tudors, particularly Elizabeth I. Should we look forward to another extended series like Uhtred? Or is it more likely to be a trilogy or a one-shot book? Also, is your interest in following Drake as he raids the Spaniards, culminating in the defeat of the Armada? Or perhaps the border wars with Scotland, such as the battle of Flodden? Or do you want to slog through Irish bogs with Essex in pursuit of the Earl of Tyrone? Alan Kempner

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

None of the above! I do have an idea I want to pursue (and forgive me if I don't say what it is), but whether I shall ever finish the research or find time to write the books - I don't know. I hope so!

Q

I've read all the Uhtred-books, and was reading an article about the norwegian king Håkon den Gode Adalsteinsfostre (Hákon góði, Hákon Aðalsteinsfóstri) and was suddenly thinking about the Uhtred-books. As far as I remember there was a relative of Uhtred called Aethelstan? And was there any mention about (the king to be) Håkon in the books? Æðelst’n,modern english: Athelstan) 893-939 ? I'm a big fan, although the last book didn't meet my expectations, sorry to say...

Hakon

Submitted January 25, 2011

A

Well Aethelstan has literally just been born in the book I'm writing now, so it's a little early to know what will happen in the books to come or whether they will feature Hakon. But Aethelstan, of course, will be hugely important as the man who unites and (really) creates England.