Sharpe's Rifles (38 page)

Sharpe and Harper, though, are now bound for Talavera. From Talavera to France is a long way,
but that elite of the British army, the greenjacketed Rifleman, marched every step of the way,
and when it became necessary, he foot-slogged from Waterloo into Paris itself. Sharpe and Harper
have yet to complete either journey, so they will march again.

The End

Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 - a
'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air
Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar
People (and they were), but escaped to London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he
joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the
Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern
Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love.
Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was
refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit
from the US government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a
British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy
married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States and he is still writing
Sharpe.