Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell, OBEis an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. Cornwell has written historical novels primarily of English history in five series and one series of contemporary thriller novels. A feature of his historical novels is an end note on how the novel matches or differs from history, for the re-telling, and what you might see at the modern site of...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth23 February 1944
Pride makes a man, it drives him, it is the shield wall around his reputation... Men die, they said, but reputation does not die.
Our ancestors took this land. They took it and made it and held it. We do not give up what our ancestors gave us. They came across the sea and they fought here, and they built here and they're buried here. This is our land, mixed with our blood, strengthened with our bone. Ours!
I'm a success inasmuch that I enjoy my life, which is an enormous blessing and that doesn't depend on commercial success (though I wouldn't be such a fool as to deny that it helps).
I have a terrific, marvellous, unbelievably helpful editor in London and she has the biggest influence, but even so we disagree as much as we agree.
I'd like to cut it down to three books in two years instead of two a year - but whether that'll happen I don't know.
I did a TV series for the British History Channel a few years ago and for a few weeks afterwards I was accosted by folk in Britain wanting to talk, which was flattering, but the memory faded and blessed anonymity returned.
But publishers are in the business of making profits, so they love getting two books a year. They'd have three if they could.
Mind you, even in places where I'm much better known, I walk in anonymity, mainly because folks know authors' names, but not their faces.
I start early - usually by 5 am, and work through to 5 pm, with breaks for lunch, boring exercise, etc etc. But it's usually a full day.
And though I've lived in the States for over 25 years and am now an American citizen, I still hear British voices in my head.
The one thing I will not do is read other peoples' unpublished work. The reason for that is that it doesn't help.
Actually I moved to New Jersey in 1980 and didn't discover Chatham until 1990, by which time the books were selling, but it was still a daft decision, based solely on love.
In the end their appeal is not necessarily the history, but the quality of the story-telling, and a good story transcends national boundaries.
I took time off last year to sail the Atlantic, and if I got more opportunities for blue-water cruising I might take them.