Bernard Cornwell, author of the Richard Sharpe series and many other works of historical fiction.
Bernard Cornwell is my favorite author, period. I love his Richard Sharpe series about a soldier fighting in the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). Reading Cornwell you can taste the gunpowder (when loading a musket, soldiers used their teeth to rip open paper packets containing ball and powder) feel the terror ripple through the ranks as soldiers start across an open field into the enemy’s muskets and bayonets. The reader struggles – as do the characters – with political entanglements, the stupidity of war and the cruelty of the British and French military systems.
Cornwell is a genius, and from his books, I came to love historical fiction, in which imaginary characters are woven through historical events to bring both to life. So it was a delight to find his “Writing Advice,” in which he details his own struggles as a new writer, including self-criticism, finding an agent and a publisher, and keeping the same agent, publisher and wife for many years.
