Your Questions

Q

I have just finished reading Sword Song in the saxon tales. when will the next book be out and what will the title be? The tales are just wonderful. thank you. Margery

Dear Mr. Cornwell. Being a danish reader i can hardly wait for the next book of the Saxon stories. Any news of a 5th book will be great. Thank you. Poul Krogsgaard

Dear sir, When will the fifth book of the Saxon Stories be available? Many thanks, Jenny Gasson

Hey there! I have just finished the Alfred the Great series and have found them to be amazing! I'm more into historical fiction of an earlier era (namely Roman, Ancient Greek, etc) but have found that this period is just as interesting! The main point of this comment though is to ask if we are going to hear any more of Uhtred in the near future. Once again thanks for the amazing series! Ben Gallant

The Saxon Stories are horribly compulsive. I found the only way to avoid staying up much too late was to start reading early in the morning and read them in one go. Congratulations on these ripping yarns and the lifelike characters that stay in the mind after they are finished. At the end of Sword Song you imply there will be at least a fifth in the series - when?
David Thompson

Hello Mr. Cornwell, my name is Rebecca Seasting and I'm 14 years old and I ABSOLUTLEY LOVE the Saxon series and Uhtred!! Definitely my favorites! So... are you going to write another book after Sword Song? It was depressing once I finished because i wanted to read more!! I give those books to so many people and they all love them! Seriously. But ya, are going to write another book (and what's it going to be about)? Right now I'm reading the Winter King.. strange but awesome, and Uhtred will always have a place beside my heart:D YOURE THE BEST WRITER EVER!! Rebecca

The Saxon Stories are magnificent! I cant put them down until I have finished them. Is there a book to follow "Sword Song" in the works? If so, any idea of a release date? Reading these stories have prompted me to begin learning of actual Saxon times. Thank you very much! Brannon McMahon

Hi Heard you on the Bookclub programme last week. I think you mentioned that you were writing or had finished the next book in the Saxon Stories. Any ideas when it'll be out. Really looking forward to it. Does Uhtred get back to Northumbria... Best Andy

I was a die hard Alexander Kent fan. I must have read his Bolitho series at least three times. Then I found some of the Sharpe's Rifles. What Kent does for the Royal Navy you do for the Army. So far all the Sharpe's Rifles have been read, along with the Saxon Tales, Quest for the Grail, and I am now starting the Warlord series. My only question is about the Saxon Tales, is there to be more?? Thanks Marc

Hello, I am a huge fan of your Saxon stories and other novels. I was just curious as to when you plan on having the latest installment to come out? James

Hi, I enjoyed the Saxon Stories a lot. Unfortunately I just finished the Sword Song. Will there be a following novel with Uhtred? If yes when will it be available? Best regards from Germany, Benedikt

Dear Mr. Cornwell, I am wondering if your going to wright another saxon book. Because when you left off from the Sword Song it sort of never had an ending. sincerely, Nicholas Poole

Are there any more books about in the Saxon series? How does Uhtred regain his castle in Northumdria? Jack Howard

Many thanks for your books they continue to amaze, enlighten and entertain me. I Heard a program on radio 4 today 05.02.2009 where it was mentioned that there is a 5th book in the Saxon series, but I can't find any mention of it. Has it been released or is there a definite title that I can look out for. Very many thanks for the hundreds of hours of enjoyment David

Submitted February 16, 2009

A

I am working on the fifth book of the Saxon stories now. I hope to have it ready for publication in the UK in October of this year; most likely January 2010 publication in the US. No title for the next book yet!

Q

Hello Mr. Cornwell first off I'm a big fan. I've read all the Sharpe series and some of the saxon series. While reading the Sharpe series I distinctly remember a poem you dedicated in the front of the book. It had a rhyme scheme of treasure and pleasure, by any chance could you tell me what Sharpe book it was in? Thank you and keep writing Sharpe!
Mark Denny

Submitted February 16, 2009

A

The Sharpe book you are seeking is 'Sharpe's Honour'. The poem in the front of the book is:

We'll search every room for to find rich treasure,
And when we have got it we'll spend it at leisure.
We'll card it, we'll dice it, we'll spend without measure,
And when it's all gone, bid adieu to all pleasure.

From: 'The Grenadier's March (Anon),
Quoted in 'The Rambling Soldier, edited by Roy Palmer, Penguin Books, 1977.

Q

Dear Bernard, If you could spare a moment to help me with a couple of questions i would like answered, i would be very grateful. Firstly knowing the South Essex are a fictional regiment. What divisions did you attach them too during their time under Wellesley /Wellingtons campaign of the Peninsular?? this is to help me in my holiday preparations of Spain and Portugal. Secondly i have just reread the Sharpe novels pertaining to that campaign and in my haste i forgot to write down where Sharpe travelled. i have used Brians time line as a reference, but he really only mentions the major engagements and not the smaller villages and towns Sharpe inevitably ends up being in or travelling through. can you help or point me in the general direction. again thanks,and thanks for the tip previously given about Julian Paget's excellent book. i have it and am loving it. Steve Fleet

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

I really can't remember which divisions - which isn't at all helpful, I'm sorry. Generally speaking the South Essex were doomed to be wherever the battle was hottest, and that determined the division for that particular book, but as some of them were written more than twenty years ago (groans) I really don't remember, and I'm fairly certain that sometimes I deliberately avoided mentioning any divisional attachment. I suppose the best advice I can give is to follow Paget to the heart of any battle-site, and you can be fairly sure Sharpe was on that spot before you!

Q

Gisela must die! She's turning Uhtred into a namby-pamby sissy! His charm has always been his complete lack of good graces and his joy in the killing anyone or anything for any reason at any time. Gisela is changing all of this. You have always got rid of Sharpie's women. Why not her? Are you going soft in your old age? Please, make her dead in the next book. Have read everyone of your historical fiction swashbucklers. They are fun stuff.
T. Moore

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

Ah, wait and see. Most of the next book is written, but I ain't telling you what happens . . . . .

Q

I'm huge fan of the Sharpe series, Mr. Cornwell, and also a writer in my own humble way. Right now, I'm trying to find some resources on the officers ranks of the British Army. I've got a character, a Scots officer, and I'm trying to find anything that might tell me how he would have gotten on with his English colleagues. I seem to recall some mention of this being made here and there in the Sharpe novels, and was hoping you might point me to where you had researched??? At any rate, your incredible panorama of detail in all the Sharpe novels has always left my brain stuffed full of military minutiae, and I love them to bits!
Anna Gray

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

I'm not certain I used any particular sources for the relationship between Sharpe and the officers in the Scottish regiment he joins. I've certainly read so widely through diaries and letters of the period that I'm sure some of that rubbed off, but in truth I suspect it didn't need much research! Scottish regiments were (on the whole) more homogeneous than English regiments, and there was an inevitable family feeling to many of them, so an outsider was not really welcomed. Plainly an outsider should work his way into the family's affections, and I'm sure that happened frequently, just as sometimes, as in Sharpe's case, he felt excluded. English regiments were probably more accepting (though that's not saying much), purely because they were less restrictive in their catchment area. At the heart of it is the love-hate relationship between England and Scotland; it's tribal, and you go from there. Wellington himself valued competence above tribe, so many Scots were welcome and happy in his employ. Really - the tribal thing will determine first acquaintance, but it won't last . . . if your Scotsman is prickly and defensive about his nationality then he will have an uncomfortable time, if he's a good guy who others like, then it won't matter at all, except to be the cause of occasional teasing. It really depends on his innate character rather than his nationality!

Q

Dear Bernard After listening to your radio programme on Radio4 and of course your dislike of Puritans I wondered if you had ever thought of the English Civil War and taking on the Puritans literary so to speak??

Also you have been writing about the Hundred years war and have course been writing about victories like Crecy and Agincourt and that you may also write about Vernuil and Poitiers as well. It would be wrong to see a war written about only half done and wondered if you will also write about the defeats from the British perspective Since you have done the victories since it seems only fair ie The siege of Orleans and Forigmby and Castelle that lost us the war the yr 1453 should allow Old man Hook to still be alive for the end????

Finally you are writing about Alfred and the forging of England any chance of Edward 1st and the forging on the United Kingdom??? yours sincerely Geraint

P.S If you have not read them I can recommend Charles Spencers book Prince Rupert the Last Cavalier and John Adamson's the Nobel Revolt and finally Guy Dempseys book on the battle of Albuera

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

I would love to. Oh, how I would love to! The trouble is that the puritans always win! Some clever American (apologies to him, but his name escapes me for the moment) wrote a fascinating book a few years ago which pointed out that there had been three great contests between puritans and cavaliers in Anglo-American history - the English Civil War, the American Revolution and the American Civil War - and the puritans won all three. That's obviously a HUGE generalisation, but there's an interesting thought there . . . . my belief is that the puritans always win because they don't get drunk at night, but spend their time making plans. We're in a period of puritan ascendancy now (witness how governments are trying to legislate thought), and of course puritanism has little to do with religion - there was no one more puritanical than the ghastly Robespierre. Aaaaargh, I do hate them. Who was it who said that a puritan is haunted by the thought that someone, somewhere is having fun? People tell me proudly that their ancestors sailed on the Mayflower, my boast is that my ancestors threw the bastards out. Ah well.

I think both are possibilities, maybe even probabilities? I'm doing my best!

I really don't know - ars longa, vita brevis and all that. I'll concentrate on Alfred and his successors for the moment - and to be honest I'm not reading about the first Edward so I'm probably not putting him on the list. But never say never.

Thank you! I have them all!

Q

Recently I read "Last Kingdom" and "Pale Horseman"; I plan to finish the series. My question is how do find a place on computer to get the definition of some words. Words like fyrds,byre, thegns. I once stayed in small place in Wales called Kenfig which is within 2 or 4 miles of Porthcawl on the Bristol Channel. Isn't" the Bristol Channel a part of the Severn river. Also the tide that comes and goes in channel is as strong as the Bay Fundy in Maine USA? While staying there one night the tide blew a concrete wall that protected the road in front of the hotel. Thank Ervin Rickert Fort Wayne, IN

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

I have no idea - I use a dictionary! A good dictionary is much better than the internet (I hear the booing). The Bristol Channel is the Severn Mouth, though where the one turns into the other is up to you. I really don't know offhand the tidal range of the Bristol Channel - but it has to be huge, and it causes the Severn bore - the wave that sweeps majestically up the river. Fundy is around forty feet? Which is about the same as Dover. I've never sailed the Bristol Channel - but I became very used to the tide 'gates' in the English Channel - the last time I sailed Royalist there (before bringing her to the States) I was heading eastwards off Start Point and the towed-log was showing a hull speed of around five knots and we were actually going backwards at around two. That's a tide! I'm sure the Bristol Channel must have similar pleasures!

Q

I read all your books as soon as I can get my hands on them. Now into Agincourt, I wish you would consider making a children's version of this book with sex & violence muted. My grandsons would be captivated; I would love for them to have wonderful books like this to read. I pass my books on to our children. I shall suggest reading this one with pencil in hand, so my daughters might create a read-aloud version, suitable for 10 to 12 year olds.
Lucille Griffin

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

Agincourt without the violence? We could try, I suppose, though I'm not sure I'd use Agincourt as the template. I'm often asked to write something for younger readers and one day, maybe, I will, Thanks for the suggestion!

Q

Hello, my name is Daniel, and I must be one of your number one fans. I have read and re-read almost all your novels, I am just in the middle of Stonehenge (loving it of course) and wanting to begin the Sharpe tales (or Starbuck Chronicles not sure yet because the Sharpe tales will take a while), and it seems the more I read your novels the better they get. I started when I was in high school reading your books beginning with the Warlord Chronicles (falling in love since Arthur was one of my favorite childhood tales) then to the Saxon (owning signature 1st editions), Grail Quests, and some of your shorter ones. I had many questions for you but it seems like they are on many other minds too, and most have been answered. I live in Canada and was wondering if we receive US or UK versions of your work (might even be both)

and I was also wondering if you'll write other books about Neolithic, or any era around then (because so far I have not finished Stonehenge and would never like to, like I said your stories just keep getting better). I thank you for wasting your time to answering my silly questions (you must be a busy man and I feel like Im interrupting Uhtreds journey) and also, thank you, for creating some of the most spectacular stories I have ever read. Yours truly, Daniel.

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

In Canada I believe you receive the UK version of the book.

Probably not - one is enough! I was fascinated by Stonehenge, but the background never came fully alive for me, so I doubt I'll revisit the neolithic!

Q

I have read several of your books and enjoyed them - the Warlord Chronicles, the four (so far) set in the time of Alfred the Great, and a few of the Sharpe series. What first surprised me about the Sharpe books was the number of Spurs players of the 1960's and 70's that appeared - Knowles, Weller and Ardiles - and there were probably several others I missed before the 'penny dropped'. However, what really surprised me was the appearance of one John Rymer of Waltham Abbey. Now I remember John Rymer as a burly, medium-fast opening bowler for the Waltham Abbey Royal British Legion cricket club! And I remember the same team had a dark haired wicket keeper by the name of Bert Cornwell! - must be a relation. I guess you would have been growing up in Waltham Abbey during the 1960's - just as I was. It's a long way from Waltham Abbey in the 1960's to California today - you've done well! Regards, Robert Dickie (ex-opening bat for ERDE/PERME cricket club).

Submitted February 14, 2009

A

I wish you were right! Sorry - Knowles was named for a real character who left some intriguing letters (including a good description of assaulting Badajoz Castle). Weller was named for a schoolfriend. I think you might be right about Ardiles, but Rymer? I'm pretty sure I had a neighbour with that name back in the distant past, and I'm a stranger to Waltham Abbey! I hope Bert kept wicket well, though!