Your Questions

Mr. Cornwell, I"ve been a big fan of yours for several years now. I was wondering if you had ever read anything by G.A. Henty? I just finished "The Lion of the North" and it was really great! He writes historical fiction novels a bit like yours but he was writing in the late 19th century and early 20th. Anyways, I thought if you were looking for interesting reading material for your down time I'd like to recommend him. All the best, Jordan

Dear Mr. Cornwell, Thank you for many, mnay hours of very enjoyable reading. Your combination of historical accuracy with fascinating fictional characters is fantastic. I found a series by G.A.Henty and wondered if you had read them? Look forward to your books with great anticipation. Samuel Nodarse

Hi Bernard, I have just read and thoroughly enjoyed Azincourt. Your comments regarding the historical facts that you based the book on were also very interesting and have led me on to further reading but I was wondering is that for Nick Hook? Such in interesting character who obviously has a good future ahead! So would you consider writing anything further about him/ Regards And many thanks for your excellent works. Mike Reynolds. Staplehurst, Kent.

hi I'm a your fan and i read all of your books, your just great, i 've just finished sword song, and i wish to know when it would be possible to buy burning land here in italy, i look forward to read it! P.S.please don't mind my grammar errors. Francesco Piccitto

Hello, I was wondering when we might see the next Sharpe book? I am a big fan of all your historical fiction. thank you J

Hi Bernard, I have been wanting to contact you since I purchased and then started to read the novel OUTLAW by 'Angus Donald'. I was at first intrigued by the sticker on the cover which states "As good as Bernard Cornwell or your money back" I thought that quite a bold statement and rather odd because ones personal opinion is immeasurable. Anyway I thought it well worth a try as I liked the subject. As I read more and more I started to be convinced it was you that had written it as it is/was extremely excellent and read like a novel of yours. I started to have a closer think and realised that the initials of Angus Donald are A.D. and yours of course are B.C. I thought this extremely interesting and very clever if deliberate. Also there is a rather flamboyant character called Bernard in the novel and there is no details or history of the author. I have now finished the book, apart from the "Historical Note and the Acknowledgements". As I have been meaning to contact you regarding this novel I decided to contact you via this site before I read the acknowledgements just in case it 'blew my theory out of the window" and I did not want that to be the case. As to why the anonymity, well you could have your personal feelings I really do not know, maybe something to do with the subject of Robin Hood. Anyway I must conclude, I very much believe that you wrote OUTLAW if I am wrong than you have a good read ahead and I apologise for my mistake. Thank you for the knowledge and pleasure I have received from reading YOUR novels, I hope one day to give myself the time to write. Best regards Mark.

Dear Bernard You obviously have a multitude of loyal fans and I count myself as one of them. Ive read all your books with the exception of Azincourt, which Im saving for my next holiday. So it was with great interest that I read that your next book will be a follow up to Redcoat, because, (takes a sharp intake of breath), I didnt really like Redcoat very much. I guess its a matter of taste but, for the record, I felt that it fell between two stools. Generally your books have a clearly identifiable hero/cause opposed by what we British would call the baddies. In Redcoat, whether its because you now live in America or because senior management hails from those shores, the boundaries seemed to blur. It wasnt clear who, cause wise at least, I should support or which audience you were writing for. The hero was British and the cause seemed American. Its hard to reconcile that even after nearly 250 years. Possibly North American readers feel the same about the Starbuck series. In the rest of your writing there is no such conflict. Am I making sense? Is it something you recognised from the original? Will this change in the follow up? Thanks Chris

Hello Bernard I've been reading your books for quite a few years and they served as a great source of entertainment to help alleviate the boredom of revision during my University years. I'd like to ask a few questions though. I apologise if they've been asked before. Which of your books are you personally most proud of?

Which of your books would you change if you could, there must be at least one book out there that you cringe slightly when recalling some passage or other. I've always found that I am my own greatest critic and would find it very hard to read something that I had written years later, so I wonder how you find such an experience. Finally, I've just finished reading for the first time the Starbuck Chronicles books up to The Bloody Ground and although it may simply be the novelty of them being the freshest of your novels in my mind I am utterly convinced that they are my favourite books of yours and have kindled in me a deep interest in the American Civil War. I feel you tend to write your characters so they fight for the side that you feel more attached to, or at least are more interested in. I also have an inkling that you have a soft spot for the Confederate States of America, I may of course be wrong and probably am! Anyway, thanks for writing the books that have given me so much enjoyment. Joe - England

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I am a German reader and read 'Azincourt' latest. You have mentioned the quarrel whether longbows can hit high quality mail. John M. Coles: Experimental archaeology. Acad. Press, London 1979 offers a chapter on that with tests done over 100 years ago that showed impressively that longbow arrows can hit mail even at greater distance. I have enjoyed your book very much and am looking forward to read 'Burning Land'. Best regards Peter Ansorge

I am so interested in your research for all your books, but especially the Sharpe series. I wonder do you ever check out the verbal battles on YouTube over tactics? I'm thinking about the postings that go along with the Battle of Waterloo video. The link to the first down load is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHgpq3YMY04. I know that topic is long ago in your writing career, but I wonder if you ever revisit earlier research? Or, after you have written about a topic are you so thoroughly sated with it that you have no desire to rehash it? I was reading some of the rather heated posts generated by that documentary, and began to wonder what you might think of all that "hooha." Mine is not a deep question that deserves your immediate attention, I was just wondering.
Jean Bryant

Mr. Cornwell, While I am living in Belgium I have had the wonderful opportunity to read many of your books, namely the Warlord Trilogy, the stories of Uhtred, and currently The Grail Quest. While reading in the Grail quest, book 2 "Vagabond", the narrator has your main character, Thomas of Hookton, remember hearing stories of an English archer from 200 years previous, named Robin Hood, or Hude, as you state in the book. It got me wondering how you would tell the story of Robin Hood. I no longer want the Hollywood version with Errol Flynn, and definitely not Kevin Costner (Shouldn't Robin Hood have at least a British accent?), that glamorise everything and make everything into a romantic love-fest. I do appreciate that your novels skip most of that and stick to the real, or real as possible, facts of battle and every day life. I would be interested to read your story of Robin Hood. Sincerely, Leland Dixon, a fan