Bernard Cornwell
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| Bernard Cornwell | |
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| Born | 23 February 1944 London, England |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | English |
| Genres | Historical fiction |
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Bernard Cornwell OBE (born February 23, 1944) is a prolific and popular English historical novelist. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.
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[edit] Biography
Cornwell was born in London in 1944. His father was a Canadian airman. His mother was English, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted and brought up in Essex by the Wiggins family, who were members of the Peculiar People, a strict Protestant sect who banned frivolity of all kinds and even medicine. After he left them he changed his name to his mother's maiden name, Cornwell.
Cornwell was sent away to Monkton Combe School, attended the University of London, and after graduating, worked as a teacher. He then joined BBC's Nationwide and was promoted to become head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland. He then joined Thames Television as editor of Thames News.[1] He relocated to the United States in 1980 after marrying an American. Unable to get a Green Card, he started writing novels, as this did not require a work permit.
Cornwell decided to write a series of novels that would follow a British rifleman called Richard Sharpe through the various major battles of the Lord Wellington's Peninsular War. Cornwell wanted to start the series with the Siege of Badajoz but decided intead to start with a couple of 'warm-up' novels. These were Sharpe's Eagle and Sharpe's Gold, both published in 1981.[2] He went on to tell the story of Badajoz in his third Sharpe novel Sharpe's Company published in 1982.
Cornwell and wife Judy co-write a series of novels, published under the pseudonym Susannah Kells these were A Crowning Mercy published in 1983, Fallen Angels in 1984, and Coat of Arms (aka The Aristocrats) in 1986. He also published Redcoat, set in Philadelphia during the British occupation of 1777, in 1987.
After having published 8 books in his ongoing Sharpe series, Cornwell was approached by a production company interested in adapting them for television. The producers asked him to write a prequel to give them a starting point to the series. They also requested that the story feature a large role for Spanish characters to secure co-funding from Spain. The result was Sharpe’s Rifles published in 1987 and a series of Sharpe television films staring Sean Bean.[3]
A series of contemporary thrillers with sailing as a background and common themes followed, these were; Wildtrack published in 1988, Sea Lord (aka Killer's Wake) in 1989, Crackdown in 1990, Stormchild in 1991, and a political thriller called Scoundrel in 1992.
In June 2006, Cornwell was awarded an OBE (Officer, Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's 80th Birthday Honours List.[4]
Cornwell is currently working on a new work titled Azincourt, slated to be released in the UK in October 2008. The protagonist is an archer who participates in the Battle of Agincourt, another devastating defeat suffered by the French in the Hundred Years War. [5] However Cornwell has stated that it will not be about Thomas of Hookton from The Grail Quest or any of his relatives.
[edit] Novel series
[edit] The Sharpe stories
Cornwell's best known books feature the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an English soldier, and are set in the Napoleonic era. After writing 12 books detailing adventures set around various European campaigns over the course of 12 years, further stories covered Sharpe's earlier years as a young soldier in India. Most of the Napoleonic era books were filmed for a television series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe. Cornwell was at first dubious and subsequently delighted with the casting of Sean Bean and dedicated a subsequent Sharpe novel to him.[6] Further books written subsequently have been slotted into different parts of Sharpe's timeframe.
[edit] The Starbuck Chronicles
A tetralogy is set during the American Civil War. The title character, Nathaniel Starbuck, is a Northerner who has decided to fight for the South in a Virginian regiment, the Faulconer Legion.
[edit] The Warlord Chronicles
A trilogy that deals with Arthurian Britain. Like other "historical" takes on the Arthurian legends, the series postulates that Post-Roman Britain was a difficult time for the native Britons, being threatened by invasion from the Anglo-Saxons in the East and raids from the Irish in the West. At the same time, they suffered internal power struggles between their petty kingdoms and friction between the old Druidic religion and newly arrived Christianity.
[edit] The Grail Quest novels
A trilogy that deals with a mid-14th century search for the Holy Grail, around the time of the Hundred Years' War. Cornwell was planning at one point writing more books about the main character Thomas of Hookton and said that shortly after finishing Heretic he said "...have started another Thomas of Hookton book, then stopped it - mainly because I felt that his story ended in Heretic and I was just trying to get too much from him. Which doesn't mean I won't pick the idea up again sometime in the future." [7]
[edit] The Saxon Stories
Cornwell's latest series is set in 9th century England and focuses on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex during the reign of Alfred the Great, and deals with his opposition to the Danes (Vikings), becoming as a result the only English monarch to be awarded the epithet "the Great" by his people. According to Cornwell's replies on his website bulletin board, the series will not be a trilogy like his other medieval works, but will have 3 or 4 more sequels: "I'm not sure how many there will be - perhaps seven? maybe eight?"[8]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Author's official site
- Bernard Cornwell Brasil - The best Author's site of Brazil
- Christopher Seufert interviews Bernard Cornwell
- Interview, chapter excerpts and Cornwell essay Stonehenge (Official publisher web page)
[edit] References
- ^ Cornwell Biography
- ^ Corwell, Bernard (1994). Sharpe's Eagle. London: HarperCollins Publishers, vi-vii. ISBN 978-0-00-780509-9.
- ^ Corwell, Bernard (1994). Sharpe's Rifles. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 7-9. ISBN 978-0-00-779651-9.
- ^ Diplomatic Service and Overseas List. honours.gov.uk (2006). Retrieved on 2007-08-13.
- ^ Bulletin Board
- ^ Richard Sharpe bio. The South Essex. Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
- ^ Cornwell, Bernard. Cornwell's comment on Heretic. Author's Official Site. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
- ^ Cornwell, Bernard. Cornwell's comments against a trilogy (but you have to "search" for the specific dialogue). BernardCornwell.net. Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
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