Your Questions

Hello Mr Cornwell, I've just finished reading Fallen Angels, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's not anything like your Sharpe or Uhtred novels, and I was quite surprised you had a female lead character. I know its a fair few years since you wrote Fallen Angels, but I just wondered if you had any plans to write a sequel involving the Lady Campion? Thanks, Jim, Dunfermline.

In several books you indicate the riflemen end up after a fierce action with powder burns on their faces from flashback off the pan. When I was a Rev War reenactor we were taught that the flashback out of the touchhole would burn the person to your right when firing in close ranks, since the touchhole is on the right side of the gun, away from the shooter, and that veteran combat soldier had the left side of their faces scarred from powder burns, but not from their own muskets, but their lefthand neighbors. Since the riflemen are usually not firing in close ranks, I was wondering why they are getting powder burns on their faces? Phil Lord

Hello, I was just wondering why, since you are a United States citizen, you books come out in the U.K before the United States? Is the publishing company in the U.K.?

Also, I wondering what your overall opinion of Napoleon Bonaparte is? In the Sharpe books Sharpe seems not to have an opinion on Napoleon at all. That is up until Sharpe's Devil where Sharpe is charmed by the Emperor and seems to take a liking to him. I was wondering what your opinion was based on your British background since the British tend to be more on the Anti-Napoleon side. Just wondering. Love the books. Keep writing.

I am an avid reader of your novels but in many of them you portray Christians in a less than flattering light. is this because of your own beliefs or merely because , historically religion was more brutal than we like to admit? I have read and enjoyed many of your novels but one thing has troubled me. In many of your novels the welsh are portrayed as inferior to the other British cultures, am I just paranoid (very likely) or are you a bitter Saxon (no offense)? Evan Reese

I've almost all of your non-Sharpe books and am now keen to dive into the Sharpe series. Would you recommend reading them in the order of events or date of writing? James Thurlow

Good day Mr Cornwell. In one of your answers you state that Derfel started a church and a monastery in western Wales. Are those buildings still used or are they ruins?

Looking forward to Azincourt. I am glad you used the name of one of the archers that fought there. Did this man live to" have a share of the greater glory?" Regards Nicholas.

Hi Bernard, Judging by your progression from Briton v Saxon, then Saxon v Dane, I was wondering if the next step will be the Norman Conquests? There are 3 notably different cultures struggling for supremacy, intrigue behind the differing claims to the throne, the rebellion in the North against William, the subjugation of Wales by Harold, the death of two great kings and at least three major battles (I'm sure you already know all this). I would love to read your interpretation of events. Regards, Pete

Mr Cornwell, I am just about to enter my second year at the University of St Andrews, studying Mediaeval History, and the period we are about to cover is Britain from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. Having just devoured Sword Song with the utmost pleasure, I was wondering whether you could offer me the names and book titles of a few historians who cover that period for some background reading and for the essays I will have to endure? Many thanks and my compliments on another fantastic book. Regards, Al.

Hi Bernard, Your books especially the Saxon series have inspired me to try my hand at writing. I have decided to base my story on an Anglo-Saxon member of the Varangian Guard, who had a reputation for being the most fierce and loyal element of Byzantium forces. Do you have much knowledge of the Varangian Guard, and if so have there been any stories previously written about them? Thanks, Tom

I started reading your books when I was 14 (I think). I'm 16 now and am half way through the Sharpe series, have read Redcoat and the Grail quest series and have recently got Sword Song after finishing the previous Saxon books and have just finished Rebel. I was wondering if you have read any Patrick O'Brian and if so what you think of them and what has been your favorite period in history to write about? William