IGX

A few years back I caught one of the Sharpe shows with Sean Bean on PBS and liked it but it faded from memory and then some of you guys started talking about them and then last week Sharp's Rifles was on PBS and it was fuckibng killer.

So I picked up the book and the story is way better than the TV version.

I am fucking hooked on this book it gives you the flavour of the Napolionic Wars, complete with gunpowder in your mouth and how vicious and modern these wars were.

Great discriptions of action, lots of books kind of lose me there, they don;'t lay out the battlefeild so you don't get the picture of the distances and positions and whatnot but Cromwell does this very well, to the point that I could see the layoput of Santiago and the surrounding area You get a good sense on where the players are.

I am on the trail of more of these books, I think I'll read Sharpe's Eagle next.

Sharp Rifle is a fine weapon as well. The original sniper rifle.

His King Arthur and the Thief series are both good, as well. Cornwall writes slightly more realistic stuff and is a great writer to boot. Loved the details about the shield wall and Mithra warrior cult in Arthur.

During my buffalo harvest ("hunt" is a strong word) my buddy too his bison with a sharps rolling block 45-70 with a period brass scope.

Sharpe's are great guns but the books are not about them. Sharpe's uses the old British Baker Rifle.

Since I posted the O.P. I have read Sharpe's Havoc, Eagle, Gold and Escape as well as seen the ITV version of Sharpe's Eagle.


Damn I can't quit this series, it's like Crack!

I even found M. Glover's Wellington as Military Commander, a book Cornwell sights in his notesd alot, I am halfway through it as well.

I am also looking into making a Baker Rifle.

I'd like to lay some blaime on some of you for getting me hooked on the Sharpe's sereis.

I have read almost every one of them now. I just need Sharpe's devil, Fortress, Tiger and Prey and I will be complete in the commercial works and then I will join the Sharpe's Society so I can get the Sharpe's Christmas compelation of short stories and also Sharpe's companion .

Great fucking books, great fucking characters, some of the best discriptions of battle and spot on of the way your mind works in a fight. Cornwell know's his shit.

A Baker Rifle and a 1796 Heavy Calvery Saber will be hanging crossed on my wall soon.

It's also got me way into the Napoliaonic Wars. I hope I can go to Belgium with the Boys in 2015 for the 200th of Waterloo.

SNAKE EYES wrote:I hope I can go to Belgium with the Boys in 2015 for the 200th of Waterloo.

Better start walking now.

Norman U. Senchbau wrote:

SNAKE EYES wrote:I hope I can go to Belgium with the Boys in 2015 for the 200th of Waterloo.

Better start walking now.

Lot's of swimming as well.

I want to actually take a ship instead of fliy.

You can book passage on cargo ships and other vessels to get across the Atlantic, I'd like to do it old school as i have been in the ocean but I want to be at sea once in my life and not on some posh Cruise ship but with real sailors on a real ship. I hear you can actually get a cheap rate if you do alittle work on ship and stand watches.

I think that would be a great thing to do with my oldest Son, he could tell his friends he went to sea, crossed the Atlantic, went to the sight of one of the most important battles of the modern age and what not.

How many propaîn tanks will you take in your Citroën?

I only have Sharpe's Prey left and I have read them all Bitcho!

On to sending Cornwell some money for the short stories (Kinda coll he does that.

BTW per Cornwell's notes, just got done reading Elizabeth longford's Wellington: Years of the Sword.

Great book if you want to learn about the man who kicked most of napolion's top marshalls and the little fuck himself.

Scipio, Wellington, Grant, Bradley great generals that seem to get overshadowed by the men the pummeld.

Read them all Bitchos!

Now I waitfor him to write another Sharpe's book.

Gonna start on his Saxon books next, heard great things about them.

On your recommendation I listened to the Sharpe's Tiger audio book during a trip for work. That was great for a long drive and flight-thanks for the head's up.

Check out The Last Kingdom-that's the start of another great series.

lasalle wrote:On your recommendation I listened to the Sharpe's Tiger audio book during a trip for work. That was great for a long drive and flight-thanks for the head's up.

Check out The Last Kingdom-that's the start of another great series.

Glad you liked it, that was one of my top 10 Sharpe's books, Eagle, Rifles, Trafalger, Fortress, Enemy and Waterloo are my top 5.

The Saxon books are the next series from Cornwell I am going to dig into but I am not going to go as crazy as I did with Sharpe ( I'd buy 1-3 a week it seemd) and take my time and buy them all used.

I have a 200 book goal in a year and a half and only about 30 - 40 can be fiction and all those have to be either literary or modern classics (Reading Last of the Mohicans now), so any Cornwell will be in addition to that list. (Allthough in my opinion he should be considered the Historical fiction Miky Spilane or Louis L'Amore.)

Snake, have you ever heard of Flashman?

Fat Cat wrote:Snake, have you ever heard of Flashman?

I've heard of him.
Please tell me more.

It's a series of books based on a fictional Victorian antihero named Sir H.P. Flashman. It is a very well researched and interesting series, but it is also an extremely funny extended satire of the British Empire. Here is the series:

The following extracts (in publication order) from the Flashman Papers have been published:

* Flashman (1969): 1839-1842. Lord Cardigan; the First Anglo-Afghan War (the retreat from Kabul, the last stand at Gandamak and the siege of Jalalabad).
* Royal Flash (1970): 1843, 1847-1848. A pastiche of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, set in the fictional German state of Strackenz. Lola Montez; Otto von Bismarck; bare-knuckle boxing; the Schleswig-Holstein Question; the Revolutions of 1848.
* Flash for Freedom! (1971): 1848-1849. The Atlantic slave trade; the Underground Railroad.
* Flashman at the Charge (1973): 1854-1855. The Crimean War; the Charge of the Light Brigade; Russian invasion of Central Asia.
* Flashman in the Great Game (1975): 1856-1858. The Indian Mutiny, the Rani of Jhansi, the Cawnpore Massacre, the siege of Lucknow. Flashman was required to perform heroically in this conflict and was awarded the Victoria Cross and a knighthood. But the publication of Tom Brown's Schooldays with its portrayal of Flashman as a coward and bully spoiled his satisfaction.
* Flashman's Lady (1977): 1843-1845. The first "hat trick" in cricket; "White Rajah" James Brooke and the pirates of Borneo; Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar. Parts are written as if drawn from the diary of his wife Elspeth, and edited by her slightly puritanical and much offended sister, Grizel Morrison de Rothschild.
* Flashman and the Redskins (1982): 1849-1850, 1875-1876. The Wild West: the Forty-Niners, the Apaches, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
* Flashman and the Dragon (1985): 1860. China: the Taiping Rebellion and the Peking Expedition.
* Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990): 1845-46. The First Anglo-Sikh War; the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
* Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1994): 1858-1859. United States: John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid.
* Flashman and the Tiger (1999) incorporating:
o The Road to Charing Cross: 1877-1878. The Congress of Berlin; Emperor Franz Josef.
o The Subtleties of Baccarat: 1890-1891. Edward VII; the Royal Baccarat Scandal.
o Flashman and the Tiger 1879, 1894. The Zulu War; Oscar Wilde; Colonel Sebastian "Tiger Jack" Moran.
* Flashman on the March (2005): 1868. Escape from Mexico at the end of the French occupation; British invasion of Abyssinia to rescue hostages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Paget_Flashman

Fat Cat wrote:

It's a series of books based on a fictional Victorian antihero named Sir H.P. Flashman. It is a very well researched and interesting series, but it is also an extremely funny extended satire of the British Empire. Here is the series:

The following extracts (in publication order) from the Flashman Papers have been published:

* Flashman (1969): 1839-1842. Lord Cardigan; the First Anglo-Afghan War (the retreat from Kabul, the last stand at Gandamak and the siege of Jalalabad).
* Royal Flash (1970): 1843, 1847-1848. A pastiche of The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope, set in the fictional German state of Strackenz. Lola Montez; Otto von Bismarck; bare-knuckle boxing; the Schleswig-Holstein Question; the Revolutions of 1848.
* Flash for Freedom! (1971): 1848-1849. The Atlantic slave trade; the Underground Railroad.
* Flashman at the Charge (1973): 1854-1855. The Crimean War; the Charge of the Light Brigade; Russian invasion of Central Asia.
* Flashman in the Great Game (1975): 1856-1858. The Indian Mutiny, the Rani of Jhansi, the Cawnpore Massacre, the siege of Lucknow. Flashman was required to perform heroically in this conflict and was awarded the Victoria Cross and a knighthood. But the publication of Tom Brown's Schooldays with its portrayal of Flashman as a coward and bully spoiled his satisfaction.
* Flashman's Lady (1977): 1843-1845. The first "hat trick" in cricket; "White Rajah" James Brooke and the pirates of Borneo; Queen Ranavalona of Madagascar. Parts are written as if drawn from the diary of his wife Elspeth, and edited by her slightly puritanical and much offended sister, Grizel Morrison de Rothschild.
* Flashman and the Redskins (1982): 1849-1850, 1875-1876. The Wild West: the Forty-Niners, the Apaches, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
* Flashman and the Dragon (1985): 1860. China: the Taiping Rebellion and the Peking Expedition.
* Flashman and the Mountain of Light (1990): 1845-46. The First Anglo-Sikh War; the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
* Flashman and the Angel of the Lord (1994): 1858-1859. United States: John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid.
* Flashman and the Tiger (1999) incorporating:
o The Road to Charing Cross: 1877-1878. The Congress of Berlin; Emperor Franz Josef.
o The Subtleties of Baccarat: 1890-1891. Edward VII; the Royal Baccarat Scandal.
o Flashman and the Tiger 1879, 1894. The Zulu War; Oscar Wilde; Colonel Sebastian "Tiger Jack" Moran.
* Flashman on the March (2005): 1868. Escape from Mexico at the end of the French occupation; British invasion of Abyssinia to rescue hostages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Paget_Flashman

Thanks, I'll give one a shot.

Shit that cover alone makes it look up my alley.

oh well

Based on this thread I picked up a couple of the books on Ebay for a buck, and have now NetFlixed 3 of the DVDs.

Quality stuff. I see how these films got Sean Bean some of his following work. Thanks.

I thought this thread was titled "Shape's Rifles"

Highly decorated!

Hey darth, I just ordered Sharpe's Tiger. I need my historical fiction fix so don't let me down.

Fat Cat wrote:Hey darth, I just ordered Sharpe's Tiger. I need my historical fiction fix so don't let me down.

You will love it.