Your Questions

Sir; on a living history forum that I take part in, the subject of the authenticity of glass bottomed tankards, & if they were true to 18th c. use. --You may be familiar with the story of such things being used to thwart the creative recruiting sergeants that used pubs & taverns for recruiting, that would slip the King's Shilling into a "free" drink for a prospective recruit, who upon finishing the drink, found himself in His Majesty's service. My question is, have you found in your research, if this kind of thing really did happen? And is this in fact how glass bottomed tankards came about? --It's definitely a good story, but none in the forum is really sure. Perhaps you might shed some light on this subject? --Thanks, Terry

I 'discovered' your Sharpe series of books by accident (a very happy accident I must say) because of my love of books by Patrick O'Brian and Alexander Kent - I thought my first Sharpe book (Sharpe's Trafalgar) would interest me. I am now a convert. I would appreciate your comment on the differences between naval and army officers of the period. The former (as depicted in the books I have read)seem to be generally competent but often ruthless despots while the army officer seems to be often incompetent to the extent of being dangerous to his men. Would you consider this to be because of the long "apprenticeship" served by the naval officer while most of the army officer posts were bought rather than earned? Was the English army so successful despite the "ability" of the officer class rather than because of it? In both cases, the courage and skill of the enlisted man seems to shine through.
Barry McNamara

In the grail Quest series, the characters sleep outside or in poor shelter often. Being a native of New England, I find myself wondering what kind of temperature averages they would have experienced. Many thanks. Chris Rogers

Hello, I liked the Saxon tales very much for many reasons... I see you are releasing a forth one! Do you plan on ending it there or make it more like the Sharpe's where there are tons of books in the series? thank you very much- Emeth W.

Mr. Cornwell, I love all your books, especially the Arthur and Grail Quest books. I am now about 1/2 way through the Sharpe books and really enjoy those as well. My question is why don't you and other authors of similar genre include more maps, diagrams, or other visuals in the books? Even if these were crudely done they would be extremely welcome. Wouldn't including these extras (kinda like DVD extras)increase interest and subsequently sales? Is there a reason there are so few? Thanks, Jim Seattle, WA USA

With the new 'Beowulf' film out now, would you be interested in doing a book or 3 on an English hero, real or imagined, 'before' the English migrated to 'England'? Set in Scandinavia/north Germany? Adrian Burchell

Dear Mr. Cornwell, Wonderful work, you appear to be someone who really enjoys the characters and stories you create around an historic backbone. Do you find that the characters sometimes tell you what happens next? That is, you move forward along a plot line that was roughly in your head, but then something suddenly just doesn't make sense for the character, so it turns in a direction you hadn't chosen in the first place? Also, I read with interest your note of 21 November about how difficult it is to keep organized and especially to have to slog through the last entry in a series to preserve continuity. Ever thought about offering a limited number of "fan fellowships" to get a small group of your admirers to do it for you? Rick Smead

What a joy to find this website. I stumbled into your books in the library perusing and my son and I have become addicted. We love Uhtred and anxiously await publication in America of Sword Song. Meantime we amuse ourselves with Sharpe. Hmm...getting the books from our small library the number of Sharpe books outnumbered the others. But I find we must borrow from county for the majority there are so many! Being that we must return them, we go by memory here but have some questions and observations. We are just now on Eagle, which arrived from county in rather tattered form so I knew immediately it was OLD. Now I see it was first. I see on this site you have not re-reread so will warn you may wish to have a new edition. For it says Sharpe has not met Daddy Hill here, but Daddy Hill was at that seminary in Havoc and they did brush up against each other. And it says he had never known the challenges of distraction from having a woman on the side. But come now, that reads funny after Astrid, right? This is a different Sharpe that we meet in Eagle...more heads down in those 16 years of career ...interesting. Question. If I see those battles at Rollica and Vimeiro mentioned again I may have to go library and study them. It says Sharpe and Wellesly were there, how could there be battles with both there and no book??? Did we miss it, is there a FUTURE book??? I will admit my entire knowledge of military history comes from you, and a good bit of son's early knowledge. He however is in his first year naval ROTC and I dearly hope he can avoid some hard lessons having read your books. It is striking that while weapons and names change, the war is still about courage to act, keeping troops fed/supplied with the cutting edge stuff and while you can take territory with those things done, without support of the people you cannot hold the soul of a country forever. I hope our Iraq war politician leaders read your books and think about what it will really take to make Iraq strong and independent and an ally. Teresa

I have become concerned that the term "heads down" might be misinterpreted by military people who might construe it as avoiding fire. In my world it is a saying for people so totally focused on their role, their small part of a "war" that they completely impervious to a distraction and potentially the the broader picture. Teresa

hi Mr Cornwell, I just wanted to ask if you had any scheduled appearances as of yet for Essex in England as I hear that I recently missed your visit in Rayleigh. also I would like to say that your books are amazing, I never used to enjoy reading at all and never was able to get past page 50 in most books etc..., but your books have not only made me enjoy reading but have also got me interested in war history. I have just recently finished the Grail Quest series, the Saxon stories apart from Sword Song which I have ordered and waiting for it to be delivered and also have the Arthur books to read in my collection so far so would like to say again Thank you! Kind regards Daniel Gill, 19 from Essex

Mr. Cornwell- It seems that in every book one innocent, wonderful little boy gets killed in some sad, violent way. Each time it makes my heart heavy and I need to put the book aside for an hour or two. And I'm not even sentimental or emotional by any definition! I just had to wonder...are you manipulating us on purpose to make a statement about history or mankind or...? If you are employing this device to that end, I understand. It works. For the truth is, although it's a work of fiction, I know that down through the ages many innocent little boys have been killed for poor reason. That makes it all the more painful. Wonderful blank palates of potential they are. To cut one down...! Anyhow, I love the books. Truly. I am taking the "a little boy was killed" break from Redcoat and thought I would write. Sorry for the length. -Chris Hosfeld