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
Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.
Life is a jest of the Gods and there is no justice. You must learn to laugh… or else you'll weep yourself to death.
We make children and wealth and amass land and build halls and assemble armies and give great feasts, but only one thing survives us. Reputation.
Only a fool wants war, but once a war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war.
Wyrd bith ful araed (Fate is inexorable).
Book tours and research provide a lot of travel - too much, I sometimes think, but we do take vacations.
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!
We have a gaff-rigged topsail cutter, which sounds much grander than she really is, but she's exquisitely beautiful and shamefully slow and we spend a lot of time aboard when we can.
In the end their appeal is not necessarily the history, but the quality of the story-telling, and a good story transcends national boundaries.
Not sure what I'd so with a notebook other than swat flies. If I want a break I'd rather go down to Stage Harbor and talk boats.
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.
I took time off last year to sail the Atlantic, and if I got more opportunities for blue-water cruising I might take them.
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.