A Bernard Cornwell Special Issue

Sharpe, for Openers…
Did Bernard Cornwell “rip off” C. S. Forester in creating his principal character, as he claimed in his March 1999 interview in Firsts? Is Richard Sharpe a Horatio Hornblower clone? Not bloody likely. Hornblower is, at heart, a true gentleman. Sharpe isn’t. He even commits a murder in Cornwell’s very first book. Great fun.

Swirl of Magic, Clash of Steel:
Bernard Cornwell’s English Chronicles
Although Cornwell’s literary reputation was made with the adventures of Richard Sharpe, the heart of Cornwell’s repertoire just may be a more recent group of novels that explore England’s past from before recorded history through the medieval era.

Bernard Cornwell:
A Lightly Annotated Checklist of First Editions
Both the British and the American firsts of Cornwell’s Sharpe novels are scarce and pricey in first editions.

Sharpe’s Competition?
The success of the Richard Sharpe books prompted a group of writers to try British military fiction. As Cornwell says in a blurb of one of their books, “I don’t need this kind of competition.”

Books into Film
Bunny Lake Is Missing