Books and biography of Cornwell Bernard

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Fame came to Bernard Cornwell with The Adventures of Richard Sharpe. But besides books about the good soldier of the Royal troops, the author has several historical series, which also became bestsellers.

Childhood

Looking at the open and good-natured Cornwell Bernard, you can't say that this man had a difficult childhood. He was born during the war, in 1943. Father, a Canadian pilot, returned to Canada. The mother's vicar sent him a letter about the birth of the child, but there was no answer. And what could a lonely young girl who served in the Air Force do? So Bernard became one of five adopted children of the we althy Wiggins family.

Foster parents were members of the fundamental Protestant church. Joe's father often punished the boy. “He was a good man,” Cornwell recalls, “he just tried to beat God into me.” At the age of seven, the boy went to study at a preparatory school, then there was a boarding school, which became for him a haven of common sense. In order to escape from the sect, where everything he liked was banned, Bernard enters the faculty of theology inUniversity of London.

Television was banned at home, and, naturally, he was attracted to the BBC. He began working as a reporter under the pseudonym Bernard Cornwell. He bore the name Wiggins and while Joe was alive, he did not change it. "Because it was tantamount to a slap in the face, and he didn't deserve it," says the writer. Cornwell is the surname of his birth mother. Nickname Bernard legalized and made his name.

As a child, he accidentally discovered documents in the house that contained the names of his real parents. He never looked for them, but when he was fifty, he met them. Father William Oggred was married and lived in Canada. Dorothy's mother also remarried. So, all of a sudden, Bernard had six brothers and a sister he never knew. “For the first time in my life I was with people who looked like me, who laughed like me and had the same walk,” says the writer.

Private life

In the late 1970s, after divorcing his first wife, Cornwell Bernard moved to Belfast to work as a BBC producer. In 1978, a group of US tourists visited Northern Ireland. The film crew, which included Bernard, came to Edinburgh to film them. When the hotel door opened and travel agent Judy stepped out, Bernard turned to a colleague and said he would marry her. He kept his word.

Left the BBC and moved to New Jersey, where Judy lived with three children from her first marriage, but Bernard was denied a green card. Unable to get a job, he began writing his first Sharpe novel. The London literary agent he foundrejected the manuscript on the grounds that no one would want to read about the British Army. But a chance meeting with agent Toby Eady at a parade in New York turned out to be decisive - Bernard's first novel was soon published.

Cornwell Bernard has a happy marriage. The family spends summers in Chatham, Massachusetts, where they have two homes, and winters in Charleston, South Carolina. Cornwell revels in his contrasting marriage. Judy is a vegetarian, practices yoga, a parishioner of the local Episcopal church, he is an atheist. She eats salad, drinks Perrier, and swims a mile a day. He smokes Villiger cigars, swears like a soldier, and drinks whiskey.

Debut with Sharpe

"You write what you want to read," says Cornwell. The writer's love for a series of novels by S. Forester about Hornblower, a captain in the Royal Navy, led to the creation of the first cycle about Richard Sharpe. Bernard was very eager to read about the land-based Hornblower. He looked for such a novel in all bookstores, in the hope that someone had written it. And one day he thought, why not create such a story himself, because this is a gap on the bookshelf. Thus began the adventures of Soldier Sharpe.

The Adventures of Richard Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell includes twenty-four novels. The works were written in different years, so it is more convenient to place them in chronological order. The battle path of the royal shooter begins at the end of the 18th century, when Britain was at war in India. A back door child and a former thief, Richard dreams of deserting from the start. But everything changes when he is sent to the lairenemy. The authorities reward him for a successful operation and raise him in rank. Four novels have been written about Indian events:

1. Sharpe's Tiger Gun (1997).
2. Sharpe's Triumph (1998).
3. Sharpe's Fortress (1999).
4. Trafalgar Sharpe's Shooter (2001).

A hero who took part in a major naval battle is sent on a secret mission to Copenhagen. The book Shooter Sharp's Prey (2002) tells how he thwarts the plans of the French and goes to Spain. In Sharpe's Rifles (1988), Spanish cavalrymen help Richard escape capture, while French troops try to take control of the Iberian Peninsula.

In Sharpe's War (2003), a soldier receives a secret mission, but Richard's unit is defeated and loses its colors. Only the French standard, the golden eagle, which must be captured, will help restore honor. Will the hero succeed in this mission, the writer Bernard Cornwell will tell in Sharpe's Eagle the Eagle (1981).

Battles and battles of Sharpe's shooter

The British Army is defeated and on the brink of rebellion as the leadership has no money to pay. A loyal soldier, Sharpe, is sent to collect gold thrown by the Spaniards. But, as stated in the novel Sharpe's Gold Shooter (1981), Richard isn't the only one hunting for treasure. In Saving Gunslinger Sharpe (2004), the good soldier gets envious. Napoleon's army, meanwhile, is winning one victory after another, and Sharpe has two more longwill fight in Portugal and Spain:

• Rage of Marksman Sharpe (2006).
• Sharpe's Fight (1995).
• Sharpe's Company (1982).
• Sharpe's Blade (1983).
• story "Sharpe's Gunfight" (2002).
• Sharpe's Enemy (1983).
• Sharpe's Honor (1985).

In Sharpe's Regiment (1986), the hero briefly returns to England. In Sharpe's Christmas (2003), a brave and loyal soldier is sent to the border between France and Spain. Three books will tell about the battles of the now Colonel Sharpe in France: Sharpe's Siege (1987), Sharpe's Revenge (1989) and Sharpe's Waterloo (1990). In Sharpe's Ransom (2003), he will stay for Christmas in Normandy, and in Sharpe's Devil (1992), the last novel in the series, he will travel to Chile.

Historical chronicles

In the series about Nathaniel Starbuck, the author talks about the war between the North and the South in America. In the first book, The Rebel (1993), Nathaniel, a boy from the North, arrives in the Confederate capital, joins an elite unit and fights for the South. He participates in battles, but the northern origin of the hero cannot be hidden. In the novel The Defector (1994), he will be called a spy and will be persecuted. To clear his name, Nathaniel will have to go into enemy territory and find the real traitor. The third book "Battle Banner" (1995) tells about one of the most decisive battles of that war. In the final novel, Bloody Land (1996), the author talks about the Battle of Sharpsburg, which has remained in the memory of Americans as the mostbloody day of the Civil War.

In the four novels of the Quest for the Grail series, Cornwell Bernard talks about the Hundred Years' War. In the first part of "Harlequin" (2000), the archer Thomas, the son of the deceased abbot, vows to return the relic stolen by the Harlequin gang. The second book, The Wanderer (2002), describes the ruthless and brutal battles of the British and French. War-ravaged France is on the brink of destruction. On the territory where there are bloody battles, Thomas is looking for a shrine that can grant victory. In the third part of "The Heretic" (2003), Thomas, wandering in search of the Holy Grail, finds himself in the realm of the plague. The Hundred Years War is in full swing, the archer is ordered to find the sword of St. Peter. Near the city of Poitiers, the English army set up a trap. One of the greatest battles of this war is told in the final novel, 1356 (2012).

The Arthurian series begins with The Winter King (1995), in which chaos is about to engulf Britain. Caught in the ring of barbarians, the Britons understand that there is nowhere to wait for help. But Arthur will come - the great commander, who will repel the invasion. To call on the help of the old gods, the druid Merlin in the second part of "The Enemy of God" (1996) will search for the Thirteen Treasures. Christians will declare Arthur an enemy of God. Lancelot's rebellion weakens Arthur's power, but he owns one of the treasures, Excalibur, which the reader learns about in the final book, Excalibur (1997).

Saxon Chronicle

Bernard Cornwell in a series of ten books tells about the struggle between Danes and Norwegians,which called into question the existence of Britain. But King Alfred the Great intends to defend its independence. In the first book, The Last Kingdom (2004), the reader is introduced to the main character, Uhtred. Brought up by the Danes as a Viking, he is faced with a choice - to defend his native land or to side with the conquerors. In the novel The Poor Rider (2005), he makes a choice. The third book, Lord of the North (2006), tells of Uhtred's journey to the north of the island.

Song of the Heavenly Sword (2007) tells of a truce between the Danes and King Alfred, who instructs the commander Uhtred to recapture London from the Norwegians who captured it and present it as a gift for his daughter's wedding. The recalcitrant warlord dreams of returning the ancestral possession and not being dependent on anyone. In the novel The Burning Ground (2009), King Alfred tries by hook or by crook to get a warlord to serve him. His devotion and choice as Alfred lies on his deathbed is chronicled in The Death of Kings (2011).

After the death of Alfred, power passes to his son Edward. Uhtred fell out of favor with the new king, the novel Pagan Lord (2012) tells of his struggle for his possessions. In The Empty Throne (2013), the kingdom is plunged into turmoil, and the Vikings come from the west to devastate the country. They unite with the Irish and move north. They are led by the fierce warrior Ragnall, whose brother is married to Uhtred's daughter. In The Storm Warriors (2014), the protagonist faces a difficult choice between family and loy alty. Bernard Cornwell concludes The Saxon Chronicle with The Bearerfire”(2016), where he will tell whether Uhtred will be able to return the ancestral possession.

Cornwell Books

Bernard Cornwell is probably the most famous and widely read author of history books. Cornwell conducts a huge amount of research and "fits" them into the plot as accurately as possible. Fiction and the historical component, like puzzles, are closely fitted to each other, and there are no rough edges and irregularities. Characters and locations are clearly written, nothing superfluous, each has its own personality and is easy to remember.

The author is first and foremost a storyteller, and his duty is to tell the story. Cornwell copes with this perfectly: the language is light, the battle scenes are described dynamically, and special attention is paid to weapons. He draws details so skillfully that the reader in the novels of Bernard Cornwell is immersed in the events described by the author from the very first lines.