Dear Mr. Cornwell: I recently started reading your Sharpe books--I started with "Sharpe's Rifles" and have read fourteen books in the series. I love Sharpe and Harper, love your writing, and can hardly believe I waited this long before trying your fiction. Sharpe is an exceedingly brave, loyal, self-made man, but what I love most about him is his chivalry towards women. Sharpe *likes* women. I don't mean he just likes having sex with women (although he clearly likes that just fine, too), I mean he genuinely enjoys them and sees them as people. I don't mean that he regards them as equals; I don't suppose he has ever thought about them in those terms. More like "vive le difference!" I'm sorry, I'm babbling--I could talk about Sharpe for hours. I'll get to the questions, and try to be succinct. First of all: we know that Sharpe's mother was a London whore, but what is the significance of saying she was a "Cat Lane" whore, as you have written several times? Was Cat Lane a notorious red light district in London? Or a slum? Would you consider altering the canon of Sharpe's background somewhat, by stating that his mother loved him? I know that Sharpe's miserable, Dickensian childhood helped make him the man that he became, but the thought that there was *no one* in his childhood who loved him and cared about his welfare saddens me greatly. It also strikes me as unrealistic. If there was no one at all in Sharpe's early years to love him and show him at least some kindness, IMHO he would have grown up to become a complete sociopath. Yes, he is a rogue, he has been a thief, he has committed murder (at least in the legal sense; so far as I've read, the men he has killed have either been on the battlefield, or else they thoroughly had it coming. Of course, the law doesn't regard the latter as an excuse.) But he is no sociopath. He can be amazingly kind and generous, particularly to women. He has compassion and empathy for the downtrodden. He is loyal to his men and to his friends. Unlike some officers who have not risen from the ranks, he doesn't order men flogged, or make their lives miserable, just because he can. He protects the weak and the helpless. He does his duty with incredible bravery. So, my reasoning goes, someone must have loved him, for him to have turned out so well in spite of everything. Considering his gallantry, that someone was most likely a woman. Maggie Joyce was kind to him, but he didn't even meet her until he was twelve. In "Sharpe's Havoc" you state; "[his mother] died without giving her only son a single caress." How would he know? Since she died in the Gordon Riots when Sharpe was only three, how would he remember that? You have indicated in other novels that he doesn't even remember what she looked like; he just has an impression of long dark hair. She died when he was too young to remember her, at least consciously. So, for the peace of mind of anxious fans like myself, who care almost as much about Richard Sharpe as if he were a real person, please alter your canon to state, or at least imply, that his mother loved him. Another question: was Sharpe's mother always a whore? My theory is that she could just as easily have been a nice, ordinary girl who was seduced, became pregnant, was dumped by her lover, disowned by her family, and ended up in a brothel, where she gave birth to Richard. If that was the case, she would be more likely to love her son than if she were just a whore who got careless. Next question: Sharpe has had a great many affairs in his life. Which women would you say influenced him the most? Which relationships were the most important? I would say: Grace, Teresa, and Lucille. I'm curious as to whether or not you agree. Each one of those three seems to have been what Sharpe needed at that point in his life. Now, as to Sharpe's father: I know that you aren't going to give your readers that answer anytime soon, but will you ever tell us? And was his father someone important or famous? Will Sharpe ever be reunited with Antonia? I know that the canon of your books differs somewhat from the canon of the films, but the very beginning of "Sharpe's Peril" shows Sharpe looking at a picture in a locket. The audience sees it only briefly, but it seems to be the portrait of a little girl. My belief is, that little girl is Antonia. I'm hoping that there will be one final movie in which he is finally reunited with her. I understand why Sharpe had to leave Antonia behind in the care of Teresa's relatives when Teresa died (plus, you had to use something as a plot device; it would have been hard to write further Sharpe books with Sharpe having a motherless child in tow). But I refuse to believe that he would just abandon her and never give her a second thought. My opinion of him would plummet if he did! Moreover, his line in the movie version, where he has just saved Teresa and their daughter from Hakeswill, the line in which he gasps; "She might never have known me," just breaks my heart, considering what happened later. I hope you will someday write a book in which the two of them are brought together again. Antonia can be a child, a teen, or a young woman--I'm not too picky. But please, if and when you write such a book, do *not* have her hate him, at least not by the end of the novel.. She might hate him or be angry with him at first, because we don't know what her mother's family might have been telling her over the years about her father. It didn't seem to me that Teresa's family was all that fond of Sharpe. In the movie (again, I know the movies differ from your books), Teresa's uncle refers to Antonia as the bastard child of an English soldier. This doesn't suggest that her mother's relatives would tell the little girl nice things about her father. They might even claim that Sharpe willingly abandoned her. Or, for all I know, the family might have told Antonia all about both of her parents, might even have been corresponding with Sharpe over the years, letting him know how his daughter is doing. In that, her childhood would not be so unusual--not so very different from the British custom of sending a child away to be educated. Or, Antonia might have been told very little about her father, might have gotten curious about him, and as a girl or a young woman, might decide to seek him out. Or she might be in some kind of trouble and Sharpe has to rescue her. (Although, if you go that route, please don't let her be some completely helpless female. I like the thought of Antonia being extraordinary, since both her parents were so remarkable.) There are a lot of ways you could do it, and I trust an author as talented as you are, Mr. Cornwell, to do it right. Would you please give us a *good* explanation as to why Sharpe, once he became involved with Lucille and they started living on the farm as husband and wife, never went back and got Antonia? (By a "good reason," I mean please don't say that he just didn't care enough about her to go back.) Granted, he might have reasoned that it would be bad for Antonia to be uprooted from the only family and country she had ever known. Moreover, having just hooked up with Lucille, and still being legally married to another woman, it would not have been an ideal time for Sharpe to say; "Stay here, love, I'm going to Spain to get my young daughter and bring her back for you to raise." (I may have just answered my own question.) Still, it might be something he has thought, or would think about, doing over time. Lucille does not strike me as a woman who would have a problem with the fact that Sharpe already had a child. Whatever his reasons, I don't believe Sharpe would ever just abandon his child. He knows firsthand how hard the world can be for orphans and abandoned children. That is why my opinion of him would hit rock-bottom if he never gave Antonia another thought, or never made any provision for her. One last family-oriented question: Did Patrick Harper and his wife ever have any children other than young Patrick? If you are still reading this really long message, Mr. Cornwell, I thank you for your patience and dedication to your fans. I will greatly appreciate any answer(s) you might give me. Thanks again for creating the wonderful, fascinating character of Richard Sharpe! Sincerely, Patricia Fogleman