Your Questions

Q

Dear Mr Cornwell, I am currently reading your Sharpe books and am very much enjoying them! I read on the "Your Questions" section of the website that you write your books chapter by chapter as you like to discover what is going to happen in them, with the Sharpe books at least you must have a rough idea about what is going to happen in them as you do research and you have the battle that it will end in etc, I was just wondering how much of a rough idea you have for a story before you start writing it? Do you just know that it's going to end up at the battle, and how Sharpe gets there and who he meets along the way is a mystery? Or do you know the route he will be travelling and the people he will meet but just not the adventures that he will have? Thank you for writing such wonderful books. Richard

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

It's genuinely a mystery. I've just finished Azincourt . . . at the beginning, when I started what is now the prologue, I knew three things: first that it would end up at Agincourt (duh), that the hero had to be at Soissons, and that his name was Nick Hook. That was honestly it. Everything else in the book came to me as I wrote it . . . . . it doesn't seem to me to be a very efficient way of doing it, but it's the only way I know how.

Q

Ref. Sharpe's Devil. Miller states:"I'd march from here to Toronto..." The setting is 1820-1821. Was that city not still called York at that time? Enjoy reading your novels. Thanks for all the pleasure. John

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

Yes it was . . . .

Q

Dear Bernard I seem to recall that Sharpe had a daughter who married a rifle's officer. Is there any chance that this rifle officer would make an appearance in a future book?

and my final question have you ever thought of writing a novel around any of the following people Hareward the wake, Robin Hood, Owain Glyndwr, William Wallace, Dick Turpin? Kind Rgds Phil

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

I'm honestly not sure! I mean it's possible . . . . . but right now I couldn't say (same response for both questions).

Q

I am recently out of high school and I am trying to write a book taking place sometime during or around the First Crusade. I have read your Saxon Stories and enjoy them, I am worried about coming up with names for towns, cities, and castles in England during the middle ages. I am also worried I will have trouble in general because I am from the U.S. and am kind of writing from across the world. Any source ideas or anything like that?
Jamie Gibson

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

oh, use the real names! Who cares if Winchester was called Wintanceaster? It's pretentious of me to do that . . . . but if you really want to know then get hold of a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names . . . . but if I were you I'd use the modern names!

Q

First of all, I love your stories! I love the pace, the settings, the hard boiled action and the characters. Especially the Sharpe books. And about that series I have a question. Were the rifles participating the actions following the great battle of Waterloo? I ask this, because I know that the Napoleonic wars were not immediately finished on June 18th. And...will Richard Sharpe take part in this aftermath? Rob, A dutch fan.

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

The Baker Rifle went on being used for much of the 19th Century . . . a few, I think, were even adapted for percussion fire before the weapon was overtaken by more modern technology. The British army used it more or less wherever it fought . . . which was more or less everywhere! It featured heavily in the liberation wars of South America . . though the only British fighting there were volunteers. As for Sharpe? I think he's at his best doing God's work, which is fighting the French, so I'm not sure if I'll write much after 1815.

Q

I've found myself wondering recently if you've had the chance or inclination to read any of Francis Pryor's recent popular books on archeology (Britain BC, Britain AD, Britain in the Middle Ages). My (former) in-laws live in a village near Ramsey, making Flag Fen and then Seahenge sources of local pride, so I've kept any eye out for his books. I've enjoyed them, and find his arguments pretty compelling. The story coming out of archeology tends to undercut the world of the Arthur books, but it doesn't reduce the pleasure of reading them. Besides, the Saxon stories displaced the Arthur series as my favorite of yours. I think the setting in a better-documented period is part of it, but your fluency in Old English almost certainly contributes to a authentic tone to the dialogue. As you can guess, I'm anxiously awaiting the coming books, and hoping for as many as possible. Don't take up skydiving, rock climbing, basejumping or similar in the meantime! Thanks- Eric

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

I have read him, yes . . . not sure I feel the Arthurian world is being undercut, but maybe I didn't read him closely enough. Whatever, many thanks! I'll write again when I've finished today's basejumping.

Q

Hey, I would like to know if a Sharpe video game has been made or is in the works or if there has been any consideration of making one? Alex Ward

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

There's been some talk of it...but nothing's seem to come of it, yet!

Q

I was just wondering if you have finished the Sharpe series or are there other books coming?
Oliver Corbisiero

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

There will be more Sharpe!

Q

Hi! Your books are truly great and inspire the imagination. I just have a a few questions. Firstly, from a history point of view and your own, why would so many warriors follow a man like Alfred who had never really seen a battle or faced an army himself?

Also, where did you learn many of the battle and fighting techniques of that time? and how much of it is your own imagination?
Martin Norman

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

I suspect Alfred created a political structure that made dissent impractical . . . . he had enough powerful supporters to deter rebellion. And success breeds success . . . Alfred's approach to war was practical and highly intelligent, and it worked. In an age when heroism on the battlefield was celebrated he came up with a system that deterred battle - the burh system - and one result of that was to make Wessex comparatively safe from Danish attacks - they nibbled at the edges, of course, but never solved the problems he created for them. That meant that the great landowners, for the first time in a generation, could feel safe and that, surely, persuaded them (in Yeats and Sellar's words) that he was A Good Thing. Alfred's leadership is really, I think, the leadership of high intelligence . . . . much rarer than we might think!

There are a number of books that deal with it directly, so obviously I read those, and the Saxons left us a wealth of battle-poems, and those are a good source, but it's all supplemented by imagination.

Q

Hi again, Mr. Cornwell. My question this time is about the Danish war-axe, the REALLY big ones that stood about four feet tall. I wonder how it was used in the shield wall. It seems to me that this weapon really requires both hands for an effective strike, and this would preclude the use of a shield and its protection. If you used a shield, you would be limited to weak, one-handed strikes with the axe. I wonder, could the large round viking shield be slung over the upper left arm? This might still allow for powerful, double-handed strikes with the axe. Alan Kempner

Submitted July 6, 2008

A

I doubt the strikes would be as weak as you imply . . . these guys practised, which in effect means they worked-out. And slinging a shield on the upper left arm would be impractical, I think. I'm sure, at times, they used the axes one-handed, but when two-handed they surely relied on their neighbour to provide the protection of his shield - or just relied on the effect of the weapon itself to create a zone of safety. Don't think I would have wanted to get within hitting distance!