Sharpe’s Peril
India, 1818
Sharpe is still in India, taking up where Sharpe's Challenge left off. Sharpe and Harper are on their way to Calcutta, from where they are to sail to England when they are summoned by the British Governor, Viscount Sedgefield. Sharpe is unwittingly tricked into escorting the spirted and willful Marie Angelique Bonnet to meet her betrothed at a company outpost. Along the way they come upon an East India Company baggage train, also making its way to Calcutta. The party - which includes among its number a heavily pregnant woman and a teenage British ensign in charge of a prisoner escort detail - travels warily through enemy territory. Fearing Chitu, the legendary bandit leader who controls the area keeps them on the lookout for a trouble. When a raid happens, the Company officers in charge prove inadequate to its defence and Sharpe has to take over and lead the party 300 miles through enemy territory. He has to train up the ill-assorted group into proper soldiers and finds himself defending helpless villagers against the corrupt and ruthless Colonel Dragomirov, the local Company commander in the area.

CAST Sharpe: Sean Bean Harper: Daragh O'Malley Barabbas Hakeswill: Amit Behl Marie Angelique: Beatrice Rosen Lance Naik Singh: Raza Jaffrey Wormwood: Steve Speirs Celia Burroughs: Lucy Brown Simmerson: Michael Cochrane Dragomirov: Velibor Topic Beauclare: Luke Ward Wilkinson
Maharani Padmini: Nandana Sen Maj. Tredinnick: David Robb Mrs. Tredinnick: Caroline Carver Maj. Joubert: Pascal Langdale Deever: Chucky Venice Quilter: Ryan Pope Croop: Jonathan Coyne Subedar Pillai: Rajesh Khattar Chitu: Ulhas Tayad Sedgefield: David Henry

Sharpe The Legend
A collection of good bits narrated by Cooper, last seen nursing a shoulder wound in Sharpe’s Gold.

Sharpe’s Tiger
The Siege of Seringaptam, Mysore India 1799

Sharpe’s time as a young, bored and cocky Private in His Majesty’s Army in India has Sharpe a member of the King's 33rd Foot, under the tyrannical foot of the evil Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill. The story opens with Sharpe thinking of desertion, if Sergeant Hakeswill doesn’t kill him first. Hakeswill is desperately trying to get Sharpe up on a charge, but failing to do so due to the interference of Sharpe’s friend Tom Garrard and his supporters amongst the officers, Ensign Fiztgerald and Lieutenant Lawford. The fact that Lawford is always watching out for Sharpe causes Hakeswill to accuse Sharpe of being Lawford’s “lily boy”, and Sharpe hits him. Sharpe is then sentenced to a thousand lashes, but is spared after 202 because Lawford won’t go on the secret mission he’s been picked for without Sharpe. This is a sensible move on Lawford’s part because the street-smart Sharpe manages to keep them alive as the mission lurches from one disaster to another as the lads are caught, tortured, freed, betrayed, captured, tortured again until Sharpe finally breaks out of the dungeons, kills his tiger, saves the British Army, kills the Tippoo and steals his ruby. The only reward he asked for before he even set out was, if he was successful, could he be a sergeant.

Sharpe’s Triumph
Battle of Assaye, India 1803

In the four years since he earned his sergeant's stripes, young Richard Sharpe has led a relatively peaceful existence. Sharpe's reverie ends when he barely survives a murderous act of treason by a bitter English officer, who has joined the mercenary forces of the Mahratta confederation determined to drive the British from the continent. Sharpe is chaperoned by the elderly, religious and cantankerous Colonel McCandless around India in search of the traitor. Having survived the massacre at Chasalgaon, Sharpe is the only locally available person who can identify William Dodd. Sharpe rambles through his adventures with little knowledge of the plotting of the vengeful Sergeant Hakeswill as money and patronage protect him from anything Hakeswill or anyone else can throw at him. Sharpe soon finds himself in the enemy camp, tempted by an ememy offer to desert and be made up into an officer. Only when Sharpe buys McCandless a horse does the miserable auld bugger realises that there is more to the gutter-born rogue who certainly has a secret stash and might be able to make it as an officer in the British Army, though not as easily as Sharpe had imagined.

Through a process of elimination, Sharpe finds himself in the role of aide to Colonel Wellesley at the battle of Assaye. His vow to hunt down the turncoat still alive, Sharpe plunges headlong into the white-hot battle of Assaye alongside Sir Arthur Wellesley--the future Duke of Wellington--in the fiercest fight of his career. When Wellesley is unhorsed it is Sharpe, with a battlefield castoff sword who saves his life. Wellesley is impressed and, prompted by McCandless, makes Sharpe up to Ensign. Alas, Sharpe loses McCandless as a patron for moments later he is killed by Hakeswill, peeved that McCandless has spoiled his plot to get even with Sharpe.

Sharpe’s Fortress
Siege of Gawilghur, India 1803

Richard Sharpe, now an officer in Wellesley's army, faces a battle of a different kind-this time among his own ranks. Uncomfortable with his newfound authority and unwilling colleagues, Sharpe is relegated to the tedium of baggage duty. But when he catches wind of a treasonous scheme devised by none other than his oldest and worst enemy, Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, Sharpe has little choice but to take up arms, seek revenge, and regain his stolen treasure-the jewels of the Tippoo Sultan and he's not above executing a useless and treacherous officer to do it. Joining Wellesley's army as it prepares to lay siege to this fortress high above the Deccan Plain, Sharpe will risk his honor, reputation, and fortune on a battle that will test him as never before

Sharpe’s Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar, Atlantic Ocean, 1805

The year is 1805, and the Calliope, with Richard Sharpe aboard, is captured by a formidable French warship, the Revenant, which has been terrorizing British nautical traffic in the Indian Ocean. Betrayed by the Calliope's Captain in conspiracy with an old foe, Joseph Pohlman, Sharpe finds his treasure absconded with. The French warship races toward the safety of its own fleet, carrying a stolen treaty along with Sharpe's fortune in jewels, that could provoke India into a new war against the British--and render for naught all that Sharpe has bravely fought for up until now. But help comes from an unexpected quarter. Befriended by the Pucelle's Captain, Joel Chase, Sharpe has vowed retribution on the perpetrators and joins in the hunt for the Revenant. Sharpe comes aboard the seventy-four-gun man-of-war in hot pursuit and is taken on as an honourary Marine. What results is a breathtaking retelling of one of the most ferocious and one-sided sea battles in European history, in which Admiral Lord Nelson--and Sharpe--vanquish the combined naval might of France and Spain at Trafalgar. Sharpe experiences his first true love and ecomes enamoured of the notorious seven-barrelled weapon made by Mister Nock of London

Sharpe’s Prey
Expedition to Copenhagen, Denmark, 1807

The year is 1807 and Richard Sharpe, stuck in the lowly role of regimental quartermaster and miserable over the lose of his love, Lady Grace and his infant son, is contemplating leaving the Army. He soon finds himself in the thick of the 1807 British campaign to destroy the Danish navy anchored in Copenhagen before the French can seize the ships and pose another invasion threat. The treacherous murder of a British army officer in London occurs at nearly the same time that Sharpe is taking his long-anticipated revenge out on Jem Hocking, his childhood tormentor. The paths of Captain John Lavisser a traitor working for the French, and Sharpe cross when Sharpe is drafted into duty to escort the vile man on a secret mission to Copenhagen. Lavisser commits treachery and tries to kill Sharpe, leaving him stranded with only a name from which to seek aid, in the Danish countryside and vowing retribution. A final confrontation with Lavisser coincides with the British bombardment of Copenhagen. Along with the swashbuckling action, Sharpe finds romance with the widowed daughter of Britain's top Danish agent, Astrid Skovgaard, who helps him get over the loss of Grace. Sharpe faces an inner turmoil over the temptation to quit the army and remain in Denmark, or persuade Astrid to return with him to England.

Sharpe’s Rifles
French Invasion of Galacia 1809
As with most of the novels, any similarity between the books and the films is purely coincidental. In rifles, it is Louisa Parker, the niece of the missionaries who takes Sharpe’s fancy but ends up instead married to Major Blas Vivar. There is no Army money lost. This is set after the retreat to Corunna. Sharpe and what’s left of his unit are cut off and after some awkward democratic moments, decide to travel south to Portugal. On the way they meet up with Vivar and his partisans and the three Methodist Missionaries, all the while being pursued by the French.

They end up taking the city of Santiagio, hoisting the flag for a few hours, but lose it when the French patrols arrive. In a final battle against the Chasseur, Sharpe goes mano a mano to get the one thing he really wanted, a new pair of trousers and some boots.

Sharpe’s Havoc 1809
Lieutenant Richard Sharpe finds himself fighting the ruthless armies of Napoleon Bonaparte as they try to bring the whole of the Iberian Peninsula under their control. Napoleon is advancing fast through northern Portugal, and no one knows whether the small contingent of British troops stationed in Lisbon will stay to fight or sail back to England. Sharpe, however, does not have a choice: He and his squad of riflemen are ordered to assist Exploring Officer Colonel Christopher in finding the missing daughter of an English wine exporter when the French onslaught begins, and the city of Oporto becomes a setting for carnage and disaster. Stranded behind enemy lines with a ragtag group of Portuguese soldiers commanded by the young and inexperienced Lieutenant Jorge Vicente, Sharpe and his Riflemen stick relentlessly to the mission to find Kate Savage. Sharpe's position on enemy ground is precarious, and his search is further complicated by the scheming Colonel Christopher, who has his own ideas on how the French can be driven from Portugal. Thwarting the plans of the traitorous Colonel Christopher, Sharpe and his band of Riflemen, manage to facilitate the arrival of Wellesley's forces at Oporto. Routing the French from the city, it becomes a race against time and vile weather to prevent Christopher from escaping with the unwilling Kate across the frontier and into Spain.

Sharpe’s Eagle
Talavera Campaign 1809
Sharpe has earned his captaincy, but there are others--such as the foppish Lieutenant Gibbons and his uncle, Colonel Henry Simmerson--who have bought their commissions despite their incompetence. After their cowardly loss of the regiment's colors, their resentment towards the upstart Sharpe turns to treachery and Sharpe must fight to take an eagle to redeem the honor of his regiment and fulfill an unspoken promise to Major Lennox who died as a result of Sir Henry Simmerson's cowardice. The Eagle isn’t the only thing Sharpe’s after. He’s fixated on Josefina La Costa, an expensive Portuguese lady whom he rescues from Christian Gibbons. Christian can’t quite forgive this slight, and tries to kill Sharpe right after he succeeds in taking the Eagle on the battlefield at Talavera. Patrick dispatches the blaggard in the nick of time. Sharpe is a bit peevish because Pat was off looking at his birds and a bit late in the rescue department. Sharpe takes a locket from Gibbons containing a portrait of his sister Jane. He ends up falling in love with the painting, which he sees as the ideal of English womanhood and carries it with him from then on as his talisman.

Sharpe’s Gold
Destruction of Almeida 1810
Sharpe is after the Spanish Gold because the Army needs it, but the Partisans are also after it. A year after the victory at Talavera, Wellington's army, outnumbered and bankrupt, is on the verge of collapse. Its only hope lies in a cache of gold hidden in the Portuguese mountains that will fund the grand scheme of Wellington's Lines of Torres Vedras, and the only man capable of stealing it is Captain Richard Sharpe. He embarks on a secret mission that pits him against the French army; El Catolico, the fanatical Spanish guerrilla leader; and El Catolico's lover, the beautiful but deadly Teresa. El Catolico doesn’t take kindly to Sharpe chasing after his gold or his woman. Sharpe manages to abscond with both: the gold and the woman. It’s a race to the relative shelter of Almeida, Sharpe and his men being pursued by both the Spanish and the French. On the run, Sharpe is shot and faints in Patrick’s arms waking to find himself in Almeida, with the Partisans close by and surrounded by the French. Also inside Almeida are Portuguese troops led by Sharpe’s friend from India, Tom Garrad, now also a Captain in the Portuguese Army. Sharpe and the Partisans dance around each other until Sharpe determined to succeed--even if it means turning against his own side, sees the only way out is to blow all the gunpowder in the fort and sneak out in the confusion, even if it means blowing men like his friend Tom to Kingdom Come.

Sharpe’s Escape
Portugal, 1810
Only two obstacles stand between Napoleon's mighty army and its seemingly certain conquest of Portugal: a land wasted and stripped of food at Wellington's orders . . . and Captain Richard Sharpe. While carrying out Wellington's scorched earth policy while the army withdraw behind the formidable Lines of Torres Vedras, Sharpe encounters treachy from within and without: first, by an incompetent British officer, who by virtue of family connections is temporarily given Sharpe's command. An even greater danger is posed by two corrupt Portuguese brothers—Major Ferreira, a high-ranking officer in the army of Portugal, and his brother, nicknamed "Ferragus" who makes no claims to respectability, preferring instead to rule by crude physical strength and pure intimidation. Together the brothers have developed a devious plot to ingratiate themselves with the French invaders who are threatening to become Portugal's new rulers.

Sharpe's interference in the first stage of their plan earns the undying enmity of the brothers. Ferragus vows revenge and plots a merciless trap that seems certain to kill Sharpe and his intimates—battle-tested ally Sergeant Harper, the Portuguese officer Jorge Vicente, and a prickly but lovely English governess. As the city of Coimbra is sacked, Sharpe and his companions plot a daring escape, ensuring that Ferragus will follow on toward Lisbon, into the jaws of a snare laid by Wellington—the massive Lines of Torres Vedras. There, beneath the British guns, Sharpe is reunited with his shattered but grateful company, and meets his enemies in a thrilling and decisive fight.

Sharpe’s Fury
Battle of Barosa, 1811
The year is 1811. With the British army penned into a small part of Portugal, and all of Spain fallen to the invader except for the coastal city of Cádiz, the French appear to have won their war. Captain Richard Sharpe has no business being in Cádiz, but when an attack on a French-held bridge goes disastrously wrong, Sharpe-accompanied by Harper, his loyal Irish sergeant, and the obnoxious Brigadier Moon-finds himself on the wrong side of the river. Making their way to Cadiz, in hopes of finding a way back north towards Lisbon, a city under siege, he runs into Lord Pumphrey once again. Pumphrey had been involved in Sharpe's adventure to Denmark some years earlier and unbeknownst to Sharpe, had ordered the execution of Sharpe's love, Astrid Skovgaard, and her father after their identities as British agents had been compromised. Sharpe and his handful of Riflemen are drafted into yet another mission for the shady British spymaster to unravel the mystery of the stolen love letters penned by the British Ambassador, Henry Wellesley, to his mistress.

When a British attack on an enemy-held bridge goes disastrously wrong, Sharpe finds himself trapped in a city under siege, a hotbed of treachery, false allies, and pernicious plots. And as dawn breaks on a March morning, Sharpe must be prepared to come to the aid of the charismatic Scotsman, Sir Thomas Graham, the city's would-be liberator, whose small, outnumbered army has been abandoned by the Spanish and is now caught between the the foothills around Barosa and the oceann.

Sharpe’s Battle
Battle of Fuentes de Onoro 1811
Sharpe is given responsibility to lead an Irish battalion of the King of Spain's household guard, ceremonial troops untrained and unequipped for battle. While quartered in the crumbling fort of San Isidro, they are attacked by murderous Brigadier General Guy Loup's elite French brigade. Sharpe has witnessed General Loup's despicable war crimes before; to put an end to them, and to settle another, more personal, score, Sharpe must lead his company into the blood-gutted streets of Fuentes de Onoro, where thousands of French troops have amassed, in a battle to the death.

Not trusting the Irish troops, Wellington and Hogan prove themselves to be incredibly ruthless men, certainly willing to risk Sharpe if it means getting rid of a whole barrel of bad apples. Sharpe, meanwhile, must be taught a lesson on the rules of war. Having executed out of hand one of Loup’s men, he goads him further and sets off a grudge match, causing the loss of a lot of good men, including his once best friend Tom Garrard who dies setting off an explosion which sends the French scampering and saves Sharpe’s life. Sharpe finds the body of his friend, still clutching the metal tinder box they’d gotten back in India. Sharpe holds the ruin of the tinder box for a moment and actually cries. Fortunately for Sharpe, all the witnesses who could have testified against him for his cockup of the unsanctioned execution end up dead by the conclusion.

Sharpe’s Company
Siege of Badajoz 1812
The siege and storming of Ciudad Rodrigo is over and the city is being sacked while Sharpe worries over his fate now that Lawford has been carried from the breach after losing an arm. A new Colonel for the South Essex may mean his promotion and command of the Light are in jeopardy. Wellington is moving on to Badajoz where the fortress is many times more formidable than Ciudad Rodrigo. The new Colonel arrives, Sharpe loses the Light Company to a new Captain who has purchased over him, and his hated enemy Hakeswill shows up with the draft come from London. On top of all his troubles, Teresa tells him that he has an 8-month old daughter in Badajoz. The only way for Sharpe to secure a future for his daughter is to gain a rank that cannot be taken from him and the only sure way to that goal is through the breach with a Forlorn Hope. But his first priority is to secure his infant daughter and her mother, who are trapped behind the fortress walls, and protect himself from Hakeswill's determination to destroy him.

Sharpe’s Sword
Salamanca Campaign 1812
The treacherous beauty, Colonel Leroux is killing Britain's most valuable spies, and it's up to Richard Sharpe to stop him. Thrust into the unfamiliar world of political and military intrigue, Sharpe must tangle with La Marquesa, a beguiling, extraordinarily beautiful woman whose embrace is as calculating as it is passionate. As she leads him through a maze of secrecy, cunning, and deception, Sharpe relentlessly pursues Leroux, determined to exact his revenge for treachery with the cold steel of his sword. La Marquesa de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba and the lovable Jack Spears prove to Sharpe that people are never what they seem. While intrigue surrounds him, Sharpe has two obsessions he must overcome before he can see them for what they are: he lusts after the Klingenthal sword and the Marquesa. In the end he chooses the sword Patrick made with love, and he chooses his wife, Teresa.

Sharpe’s Enemy
Defence of Portugal 1812
Josefina La Costa, from Sharpe's Eagle, has been hired by an elderly Colonel, Sir Augustus Farthingdale, to pose as his wife. She is taken hostage along with several other women by Hakeswill and his army of deserters when they make a pilgrimmage to a shrine in the mountain village of Adrados. Sharpe’s battles are much bigger and more complex than those he normally encounters on the battlefield. First he must take the convent, free the hostages, take a watchtower, take a village, round up all the deserters and make it back to the Army alive. After he accomplishes all of that he discovers that the French are making a major push into Portugal through the mountain pass called The Gateway of God where he is recovering from the assault on the deserters' refuge. Outnumbered and attacked from two sides, Sharpe must hold his ground or die in the attempt.
With the help of a new-fangled Rocket Troop, he manages to hold out until reinforcements arrive. During the chaos, Hakeswill, captured by Sharpe, curses him, a curse which almost paralyses Sharpe with fear. Hours later, Hakeswill makes good on his curse by escaping, killing Teresa in the process. Back in camp, Sharpe is wracked by inconsolable guilt and grief. When Hakeswill is executed by firing squad, it is Sharpe who administers the final bullet, proving that indeed Hakeswill could die afterall.

Sharpe’s Honour
Vitoria Campaign 1813
The story starts with a verbal joust with Harper over tents and a magnificent bluff where Sharpe manages to convince a French battalion into surrender with no ammunition, his supplies having fallen into the river as they were crossing.

Sharpe is grieving hard and some sort of a death wish leads him to accept a duel with the Marquese de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba, husband of Helene, La Marquesa. D’Alembord attempts to teach Sharpe the niceties of fencing before the duel, without any success. The duel turns into an all out brawl but is rudely interrupted. The whole setup leads to Sharpe being arrested for the murder of the Marquese, a murder carried out by assasins arranged by his enemy, Ducos, in a scheme involving a shrewd priest of the Inquisition, his cruel brother, and a secret that can win the war for Napoleon by threatening the fragile alliance between the British and the Spanish.

Believing him innocent, Wellington and Hogan conspire to get Sharpe out of the predicament he is in but it is left to Sharpe as to how he is going to clear his name. Sharpe finds himself a fugitive hunted by both the French and the allies and once again must turn to the treacherous La Marquesa to get to the root of the hijinks with his honour intact

Sharpe’s Regiment
Invasion of France 1813
When the South Essex is threatened with disbandment, Sharpe returns to England and discovers an illegal recruiting ring that sells soldiers like cattle to other divisions. Sharpe's old foe, Sir Henry Simmerson and Lord Fenner are behind the plot. Following the discovery that the South Essex supposed second battalion is missing, Sharpe receives a summons to court to meet the Prince Regent. Following his presentation, Sharpe has an opportunity to inform the Prince Regent of the circumstances for his return to England. Lord Fenner realizes that Sharpe is a danger to the hugely profitable plot. Sharpe starts unraveling the details with the help of the mysterious Lady Anne, but Fenner is not about to be exposed, sending assasins after him. But Sharpe is fighting for his command, and as he moves from the dark slums of London to the highest courts of political power, Sharpe will risk charges of treason and death for a final chance at revenge.

Sharpe’s Siege
Winter Campaign 1814
Sharpe's mission seemed simple: capture a small lightly-defended French coastal for. That done, he is to continue inland to raid and cripple Napoleon's supply lines and then retreat across the sea. But behind the lines, Sharpe's old enemy, Pierre Ducos, awaits Sharpe's arrival with a battalion of French soldiers and a vicious commanding general who keeps the scalps of his dead enemies as trophies. Mistakenly believing that Sharpe has perished on his raiding mission to cause havoc on the French roads, Colonel Bamphylde abandons the fort, but not without destroying it first. Sharpe returns from his minor bit of bushwhacking to find the guns spiked and the magazine blown. In the vain hope of seeing the ships return for him and his men, he sees off two French attacks then manages to escape with help from Killick, who had owed Sharpe a favour for saving his life.

There is humour found in the way that Sharpe uses the presence of a toothache-ridden Harper. Harper wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place, but he just couldn’t let Sharpe go away to fight without him. Sharpe pretends to be annoyed, but it is clear that he’s secretly pleased to have the company. He also makes a name to be remembered in the black book of General Calvet with the way that he uses lime to blind the unseasoned conscripts of Calvet's brigade.

Sharpe’s Revenge
Peace of 1814
It is 1814, and the defeat of Napoleon seems imminent--if the well-protected city of Toulouse can be conquered. For Richard Sharpe, the battle turns out to be one of the bloodiest of the Peninsula Wars, and he must draw on his last reserves of strength to lead his troops to victory. For the first time in his fighting career Sharpe starts to suffer from an ominous sense of foreboding, a gut-wrenching fear, prior to the battle. In this shaky frame-of-mind he foolishly leaves Jane in possession of a complete power of attorney and promises her he’ll never fight again. He's had enough. He's also surly over a cold hearth and home due to his insistence to fight a duel with Bamphylde over his abandonment of Sharpe and his men at Teste de Buch fort. But, plans are made for after the war and Jane departs for England to establish a home for her and Richard.

Henry Lassan, the French commander who lost his fort to Sharpe, is made to bear ‘witness’ to Sharpe stealing the treasury of Napoleon Bonaparte after the fall of Toulouse. Everyone thinks he’s buried it in the fort and Jane’s sudden spending spree in London, as well as the gift of the telescope from Helene in Sharpe's Honour, only cement his seeming guilt. Fredrickson is also drawn into Ducos's vile plot.

Harper springs Sharpe and Frederickson, who travel on to Normandy, ostensibly to find Henry Lassan, only to come up against his sister Lucille, who is armed and vigilant, believing Sharpe responsible for Henri's murder. Sharpe takes the full blast of an old fowling piece in Fredrickson's stead. His injuries are extensive, requiring months to heal. Fredrickson departs to start the hunt for Ducos while Harper heads to London to seek out the errant Jane. Sharpe's animosity towards the French woman who tried to kill him is obvious and intimidates Lucille at first. As the long recovery period progresses, she teaches the stubborn Englishman to speak and read French. By the time Sharpe departs to join Fredrickson en route to Naples to take his revenge on Ducos, Lucille reveals to her doctor friend that she is carrying Sharpe’s child

Sharpe collaborates with General Calvet to defeat Ducos and return the gold thereby clearing his name, but he still has unfinished business with Jane to haunt him.

Sharpe’s Waterloo
Waterloo Campaign 1815
With the emperor Napoleon at its head, an enormous French army is making a mad dash toward Brussels. The British and their allies are also converging on Brussels--in preparation for the Duchess of Richmond's ball. It is up to Richard Sharpe to convince the Prince of Orange, the inexperienced commander of Wellington's Dutch troops, to act before it it too late. But Sharpe's warning cannot stop the tide of battle. The Allies suffer heavy losses at Quatre Bras, trying to delay the French. Wellington has few reserves of men and ammuntion; the Prussian army has not arrived; and the French advance wields tremendous firepower and determination. Victory is not assured.

Sharpe, Lucille and their son, Henri Patrick Lassan, leave Normandy when Sharpe obtains a position with the Dutch Army on the Prince of Orange's staff. His position is much like that of an Exploring Officer. His reasons for returning are twofold: Sharpe was on half pay pension as a Lieutenant, the only rank the army would officially grant him as holding, and the pay of a Lieutenant Colonel will help him to restore Lucille's farm. The second reason is simply because its what he does. He can't bear the thought of not actually seeing Bonaparte in the flesh after all his years of fighting and the thought that it might all end without him is unacceptable. Hagman, Harris and Harper are also irresistibly drawn towards the coming confrontation. Harper ostensibly is only in Belgium to trade in horses for that is what he promised Isabella. Harper knows that she knows that his real reason for going is to be with “him”.

Sharpe and Harper march off to battle, Harper promising that he’ll stay out of danger, but never leaves Sharpe’s side; it seems the view away from Sharpe is never quite as good, he explains. Sharpe by now is quite a legend on the battlefield, hear of a fantastical tale of him selling dead French cavalry horsemeat to Portuguese. After all these battles, the familiar faces that survive and those that are killed are surprising. Harry Price survives, in spite of tripping over a silly pair of spurs in the face of a French column and Peter D’Alembord is wounded, later losing the leg, after fearing all night that he would die in battle just because he had gotten happily engaged that summer.

Sharpe and Harper come through with nary a scratch, Harper laughing at Sharpe’s terrible shot at Silly Billy in revenge for his atrocious leadership. Harper is despatched to tell Lucille that her man lives, and Sharpe, with his dog Nosey following faithfully behind, is rewarded by Wellington once more by being given command of what is left of the South Essex Regiment

Sharpe’s Devil
South America 1820-21
The year is 1820, and Sharpe has quietly passed the years as a farmer since the Battle of Waterloo. Sharpe and Harper are happily reunited when Louisa, Countess of Moromourto, shows up on Sharpe’s doorstep to ask him to search for her husband Don Blas Vivar, who has gone missing in South America. Lucille knows nothing of Sharpe’s former relationship with Louisa, but does know of his fondness for Don Blas, as such, she is resigned to see her man go off adventuring again, as is Isabella. Harper has put on weight sampling the wares of his business and Sharpe, leaner than ever, can’t stop teasing him about it, gruffly hiding how happy he is to see Patrick again.

On the way to Chile, the pair stop off at Saint Helena and manage to have tea with an old villian, Napoleon himself, who gives Sharpe a few souvenirs to carry to an acquaintance in Chile. The lads find the colony is a land seething with corruption and revolt, and are promptly robbed. A plot is in the air as Sharpe and Harper set out to trace the path of Blas Vivar only to find they are intended assasination targets at a mountain fortress. They elude the trap with the help of a friendly officer and a native guide. They find the resting place of the supposed-dead Blas Vivar but find only a dog buried in his grave. They are arrested in the church where Vivar is allegedly buried without any explanation as to why Blas Vivar isn't in his grave. The government authorities attempt to send them back where they came from on the same ship that brought them to Chile, only this time as crewmembers.

Their boat is attacked by Lord Cochrane, scourge of the Spanish Government in Chile, who leads the Navy of the rebel forces. The swashbuckling Cochrane's magnetic personality draws Sharpe and Harper into his plans for making a push on the capital city. Pretending to be sailing under friendly flags they land and, remembering Lossow's charge from Salamanca, Sharpe leads the way to takes first one, then two more forts along the harbour, until the entire harbour is theirs. In the midst of the chaos, Sharpe unravels a double-sided plot: to free Napoleon and set him up a the head of a new Chilean Republic and an opposing plot by a greedy Spanish Governor to keep milking stripping the colony of its riches. The colonial governor, Captain General Miguel Bautista, kills himself in a failed suicide pact with his lover, Marquinez, his second in command. Unknown to Cochrane, the plot to free Napoleon has died with Napoleon.

Sharpe's Christmas
Spain 1813
It's Christmas, and in spite of Sharpe not wanting to see anyone die on such a day, the French are determined to fight. Richard Sharpe, commanding the Prince of Wales's Own Volunteers, finds himself in a high, hard place with an enemy brigade on one side and a desperate force of Frenchmen fleeing their defeat in Spain on the other. Luckily for Sharpe, the Colonel leading the fleeing French force is Gudin, the best Colonel Sharpe had ever served under, way back in India (see Sharpe's Tiger). Gudin relates the sorry state of his career since India to Sharpe. Sharpe, fond of the French Colonel, decides to give Gudin his victory.

Sharpe's Skirmish
Spain 1813
A brief entry in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, written for and originally published by the Sharpe Appreciation Society. It is the summer of 1812 and Richard Sharpe, newly recovered from the wound he received in the fighting at Salamanca, is given an easy duty; to guard a Commissary Officer posted to an obscure Spanish fort where there are some captured French muskets to repair. But unknown to the British, the French are planning a lightning raid across the River Tormes, and they reckon the obscure Spanish fort, which guards an ancient bridge across the river, will be lightly guarded. Sharpe is in for a fight.

Sharpe's Ransom
Normandy, 1814
It was originally written for British newspaper The Daily Mail which serialised it during the Christmas season of 1995. An extended version was published by The Sharpe Appreciation Society in the short story collection Sharpe's Christmas in 2003 to raise funds for The Bernard and Judy Cornwell Foundation. The story provides of glimpse of Sharpe's life in Normandy with Lucille. The year is post-war 1815, and Richard Sharpe has retired to France and Lucille's farm in Normandy. As it turns out, peace offers no safety from war. An old enemy appears on Christmas Eve to take Sharpe's family hostage. To save them, Sharpe must appeal to the local villagers, reluctant to trust an Englishman who fought against them not so long ago.

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