Your Questions

Q

Your Sharpe series continues to delight me. As I'm an aspiring author/storyteller I would be interested in how you go about writing a Sharpe novel or any from your other series. Do you consult history books first? Is there a particular month or season you start the first draft? Do you have 'weekends' or write every day?

Also, do you think in the future you would write a novel centered around Austerlitz, like Redcoat as a stand alone? Keith Bignell

Submitted November 7, 2007

A

You do research first! Bit essential that. As for the rest? You start when you're ready, you work regular hours, I will work at weekends, but that depends on what else is going on in my life . . . . regular hours are important! It's a job!

I doubt it, but never say never . . . .

Q

In your book "Sword Song" at the end of the Historical Notes you make a comment "Yet dreams, as the more fortunate of my characters discover, can come true and so Uhtred and his story will continue." Are there going to be more books concerning Uhtred? Roger Johnson

Submitted November 7, 2007

A

Yes! There will be more.

Q

Hello there! I have just finished reading Sword Song, and have all of the others in both that series, and the Sharpes, the Civil War and I think perhaps all of your other publications! I simply cannot get enough of them or put them down... You may hear this alot, however I am eager to know if, or indeed when in terms of numbers of books in the future Utred will make his move on his home, and depose his relations in Northumbria. Thank you very much for your stories, I eagerly await the next installment! Should you ever visit the South coast and fancy a sail, I live on a 41 foot Van de Stadt Rebel of 1966 vintage and would love to give something back to my favourite author in return for all the pleasure you have bestowed on me! All the best, Ben

Submitted November 7, 2007

A

Sorry, I really won't know til I get there ... Thanks for the invite - hope to take you up on it sometime!

Q

Shameful of you to portray us Welsh people in the Saxon stories as anything other than the height of sophistication :) As a lover of history, which you also clearly are, I would like to thank you for making an important era in our country's past come so much alive - which is surely the goal of any storyteller. I have a hundred questions I'd love to ask but I'll limit it to one on this occasion. How did you come to your conclusions as to what the shield wall would feel like for the participants? Are there old, historic descriptions you referred back to? Or did imagination run riot and do the trick? Thanks again for simply bloody good storytelling. Fireside stuff for cold winter nights :) Diolch. Geraint

Submitted November 7, 2007

A

There really are not any old and vibrant accounts! At least none that describe it from the individual combatant's point of view, so it's almost all made up!

Q

I'm currently working my way through the Sharpe books after inspiration of a weekends worth of the Sharpe series as recently broadcast on BBC tv recently. Now even more so with the books; I'm wondering If Sharpe & Hakeswill were written as 2 sides of the same coin. As In that both come from backgrounds of severe deprivation & loss of family contact but take different paths on the question of morality. Also how much of Hakeswill's madness is him and how much due to the mercury treatment from the surgeon in TIGER or am I barking up the wrong tree? Eryk

Submitted November 2, 2007

A

I think Harper had a happy childhood, surrounded by relatives, which is the very opposite of Sharpe, so Sharpe and Harper are complementary. As for Hakeswill, he's just barking mad!

Q

Dear Bernard, I am really pleased that your next book is to be based on Agincourt. Although I am a fan of the Sharpe and Saxon series I am really looking forward to reading it and your no doubt exiting version of this famous English victory. With this in mind I wondered just how well your books are received in France. Sharpe and Thomas have inflicted plenty of injury to the French and now you will be adding Agincourt to their woe. Do your books sell as well in France as the rest of the world? I would be interested to know if you have that detail. Best wishes and good luck with your writing. Tony

Submitted November 2, 2007

A

I don't! The Arthurian trilogy did well there, as did Stonehenge, but I can't see Sharpe selling there (though the first three have just been published in French!!).

Q

First of all thank you for writing such excellent books. Your story lines and characters are simply brilliant. I was very pleased to see that you are writing a book about Agincourt as the medieval period is my favourite period. However, I am intrigued to know why you decided to write about that campaign having already covered Crecy in the Grail Quest. I am sure that the story lines will be very different but is the historical context too similar? i.e. English army marches across France, gets cornered by a much larger French army and totally destroys it. I thought that for a writer this might be a case of deja vu?
John Izzard

Submitted November 2, 2007

A

Well it already feels very different. I guess you could say the same thing about Sharpe's battles? And Agincourt was a very different engagement to Crecy! It really isn't deja vu, but a book I've wanted to write for a very long time!

Q

Hello I like the Sharpe books and films we see on digital TV. Have 2 questions, 1, Paper Battalions, would like to know more as local library stumped!! 2, More about Richard Sharpe, is there someone who he is based on? Thanks, Gillie Boase

Submitted November 2, 2007

A

I'm stumped too? Is this a reference to Sharpe's Regiment? In which case a paper battalion (I think) was a battalion which had existence in the army records, but which did not actually exist . . . useful for patronage, and for a quick expansion if a regiment needed an extra battalion. I came across a reference to these a long time ago but alas have long forgotten where.

Richard Sharpe is based wholly on my imagination.

Q

Dear Mr Cornwell I've just finished reading "Sword Song" and thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing struck me - in the Arthurian Trilogy the Saxons were (by and large) the bad guys. In the Uhtred novels they are (by and large) the good guys. Bearing in mind the amount of research you put into your novels, did you have to perform any mental gymnastics when you came to to the Uhtred novels to bring about this change of image or did you just take it in your stride? Best wishes, Roger Dennerly

Submitted November 2, 2007

A

I think I took it in my stride!! I suppose, as a writer, you adopt the prejudices of the character you're writing about, and Derfel, of course, was a Saxon (or half Saxon).

Q