Dear Mr Cornwell, I am a final year journalism student and am writing a small portfolio of short articles as coursework for my degree, one of which, I hope, will be about you. I was considering being cheeky and seeing if you wouldn't mind doing a short telephone interview with me but realised how many similar requests you must get so have decided to E-mail a few questions instead. I know that you must be tremendously busy and appreciate any time that you dedicate to this. I have been interested in military history since my Dad told me as a youngster that my Granddad was involved in the Second World War and was one of the few who held Pegasus Bridge from the Germans on the morning of June 6th 1944. My recreational reading tends to be based around fact-based things and have only read a handful of fiction titles in my entire life but decided to give the Sharpe (I was proud to learn that you had borrowed the lead characters name from a Cornish rugby great!) books a go after watching you present Sharpes War on the history channel. Wow! Im completely absorbed. Having followed Sharpe through India, the battle of Trafalgar, Copenhagen, Spain and Portugal Im finding myself, halfway through Sharpes Havoc, consciously reading slowly so I dont arrive at the end of the books so quickly! Maybe if I read at a really slow rate, and you keep on writing, Ill be in Sharpe heaven for years to come?! Anyway, to the point; the questions that Id like to ask you are:
1) You have not written the Sharpe series in strict chronological order but they read almost seamlessly with characters referred to in books that you wrote in the early eighties popping up again several books later but in the same chronological vicinity. Do you have a massive Sharpe world written down somewhere that includes characters, relationships and events that you use for reference? If not how do you weave novels in around existing ones so skilfully?
2) You wrote that you couldnt bring yourself to read Sharpes Eagle because you would feel uncomfortable reading your first attempt at a novel. Why? And in what ways do you feel your writing has improved? What do you do now that you didnt in your first book and vice-versa?
3) Are you happy with how they were written and [you should be!] do you have a favourite one? Any plans for any more? Thank you very much for enabling me to feel as though Ive lived through some of the greatest British military victories of the last few centuries! Im already lining-up your new book Azincourt for those dark, post Sharpe days. Thank you very much for your time, Phil Mitcham