"How Many More Sharpe Novels Will You Write?" | Quickfire Questions with Author Bernard Cornwell 

Hahahahahaha. Pint of rum for the best novel?

Now that's Authoring!

Chosen Authors are men of honour - Authors who will write any plot line to the death, but still publish it

that's my style sir

I only want what Wellington wants - more books to confound the French...

I do the same thing :) on my way to work and back. I also intend to buy all the Sharp books.

Knowing some history, you will know it's not Mercia, but the Mark. Gotta stop using the anachronistic Latin like terms

@@perperson199 It's Mercia in the novels :)

Try Arthur Chronicles. They are even better

@@vadimromansky8235 They are. The Warlord Saga is the best he's ever written.

I was a die hard tv show fan until I read the books/ used the audible app and the books are a millions times better

I saw him in Halifax in 2004

Basically any writer then?

​​@@lampad4549Cornwell is a top tier writer. I've read and listened to a lot of authors and Cornwell's writing is far better than most.

He announced on his web site this week that another one is in the works, so you'll get your wish!

@Harry Flashman Well Damn Your Eyes too Mate! But to be honest I have never read nor heard of the man. I will admit that I was introduced to POB via the movie, but I found BC without knowing he was connected to Last Kingdom (which I have never watched) or that there was a Sean Bean series about Sharpe. I am more than willing to check out GMDF as I love Historical novels. But do not take my Raising up of these two authors (I have read) for the condemnation of your favorite author (which I have not read).

Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O'Brian for me too! The only historically fiction authors whose books I own all of. Likewise I would put Patrick O'Brian just a step above BC as I find the characters more enjoyable. Vastly different viewpoints on the same time in history though. I found O'Brian first. Found the movie/tv series versions of both authors very disappointing and lacking the realism the books have though.

I do so wish I could find another author of the calibre of Patrick O Brian but Cornwell does write a cracking yarn

@@deniskearney2368 Take a look at a few of the Historical Fictions from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The White Company and Sir Nigel are two of my favorite books by him hands down.

@@MyxeQ Thank you, I’ll give that a try.

I'm in a similar position as regards the books I read. You should read Azincourt before you start the sharp series though, it's an unreal story.

@@adrianred236 It has been on my plan to read list for a while now but thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely read it next

@@Rymontp if you like it (you definitely will) then try the Grail Quest books by BC. They’re set in/just before the Battle of Poitiers and are brilliant!

@@rickwalker2 Thanks!

That would be perfect! Or even Patrick-Henri meeting Richard Harper

And they are also descendants of Uthred?

I would’ve thought, after reading all those novels, that you could spell the character’s name correctly. And maybe Agincourt, too.

@@danieldravot341 - Ok,, I forgot the "E" by Sharpe, so what. But I spell AZINCOURT as it is spelled in French and as it is spelled by Bernard Cornwell on the cover of the BOOK.

@@hellequingentlemanbastard9497, if you can read twenty or so novels repeatedly and still not get the title character’s name right, you are clearly not paying much attention. And I just looked up the book by Cornwell. Agincourt is spelled with a ‘g’ in the English publication.

@@danieldravot341 And you never made a single spelling-mistake in your entire Life, haven't you? Must be great to be so infallible, maybe you should become the next Pope. The one on my shelf - from Harper Collins- spells it the French way and it's the English Publication from 2008. Maybe the American one is differently? Wouldn't be surprised that they need to have it differently published, otherwise Americans would be confused because of all those Hollywood Movies. In the interview at the end of my copy, Mark Urban asks Bernard Cornwell why he spelled it with a "Z" and not a "G". The answer was: "It's just to differentiate it, really, Anne Curry wrote an Agincourt and Judith Barker wrote Agincourt, so we're Azincourt. If you look at the map of France it's Azincourt and I'm sure it was Azincourt right from the beginning, but we can't pronounce French properly so we call it Agincourt. Actually, we won, we can call it whatever we damn like!"

@@hellequingentlemanbastard9497, if you’ve read all the Sharpe books, over and over, why don’t YOU know how to spell the name? I use spell check and I proof read so, no, I don’t make many errors, especially in a public forum.

I'll second that, read all of the Sharp and the Starbuck books I wish that there were more. ⚔⚔👍👍👍

He said on his website that he has absolutely no plans at all to return to the Starbuck novels. TBH I think it's down to the fact that he's just lost interest in that era and would prefer to close out Sharpe's story instead before he gets past it because he often raises concerns about advancing age. Personally, I hope if he's going to give Sharpe a swansong, he might involve him somehow in the first Anglo-Afghan war which would put him in his early 60s with perhaps an early 20s Henri-Patrick doing the young man's work.

I love the Starbuck books, but obviously they never took off like his other series, and then on top of it you have a serious change in attitude towards the Civil War from the mid-90s to today. Starbuck unfortunately echoes some of the old 'Lost Cause' tropes and can be read as minimising the horrors of the antebellum South, and something so sympathetic to the South would be just about unpublishable today. (I did wonder if the long-term plan was for Starbuck to somehow switch sides post-Gettysburg and Jackson's death, and then follow either Grant or Sherman through the rest of the war, but I guess we'll never know)

@@justonecornetto80 Henri-Patrick joins the French Army as a Cavalry Officer. He made an appearance in the Starbuck Novels. Now Richard Harper as a young British Officer in a Rifle or Irish Regiment could happen.

@@ThumperE23 I'd love to have them meet.

@@sethclark6593 I always thought a Crimea War series would be fun, with Richard Harper an Officers in the Green Jackets, and Henri-Patrick in the French Cavalry.

What does you love of shakespeare have to do with anything?

@@lampad4549 I'm trying to figure out that myself.

@@lampad4549perhaps because Bernard spends about a minute of the video talking about his love of Shakespeare, so the commenter is pointing out his similar taste

Try the warlord chronicles as well. Well good

History is written by the victors…

Definitely agree! They were excellent.

Thats Dan Snow an historian

A truncated interview where the interviewer asks submitted questions. A better query would be why did the editor(s) not include more detailed questions or why did the producer(s) not authorise a longer video?

@@Moondog-wc4vm I’ll say it again, I want more Copperhead. I can write more Sharpe scenarios as well, he left a daughter in Spain, as well as his “legal” wife in England. The Duke of Wellington was a force in politics for years after Waterloo, remember the little jaunt to Sweden, Sharpe has connections to that world, Sharpe also has connections to the Admiralty, he was at Trafalgar.

That's the kind of line you'd expect to read in a Sharpe novel. Probably from an officer who isn't going to be alive by the last page.

What would that be called? 'Sharpe's Favourite Adult Nappies'?

@@Vesnicie Ouch.

.... what lol

US independence happens before

@@catmonarchist8920 how old was sharpe during the push in the us 🇺🇸 to the west?? Conflict with America native Indians would this be good time line it could deal with the morality and the tragedy of the indigenous tribes been pushed of their land by the land grab!!

@@Mrequine1 Sharpe was born in 1777 and sean bean is 62 so something in the 1840s would fit

@@catmonarchist8920 so he would of lived though the civil war??

@@catmonarchist8920 Sharpe dies at the Alamo would be classic ps movie about Sharpe's Devil would be crazy

TV series was ok but by sheer logistics cannot come close to the scale of the books. Some of the actors chosen for characters were spot-on, Ducos, Hakeswill, Hogan and Sweet William. In my opinion some not so much, particularly strangely, Sharpe and Harper. Don`t get me wrong excellent performances throughout but just not the image of "characters" I had been reading about for years.

@@growlers90 might have to read the books then? Which one should I start with?

Personally I started with “Sharpe’s Rifles” and went forward as they were published which covers the Peninsula war to Waterloo. That said Mr Cornwall then decided to write and publish novels about Sharpe’s early adventure’s in India and extra books featuring Spanish and Portuguese stories and they are all good 👍🏻👍🏻

Me too, but it feels like that's never going to happen.

With the greatest of respect to Sean Bean he's now 62 years old. I think he's a bit too old to be swash buckling his way through a battle.

@@TimStamper89 with all the fancy tech they have now the can deage him

@@michaelkeha can de age a face can't de age the body doing the action work though

We all know the greatest Sharpe will be the one when Sean Bean finally dies in it

My favorite story is that he enjoyed Sean Bean's portrayal so much he modeled Sharpe on him in the later novels, even giving him backstory to obtain a Yorkshire accent.