Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell was born in London
in 1944 - a 'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's
Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged
to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to London University
and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for
the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and
ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while
working in Belfast
that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to
move to Britain
for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green
Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit
from the US
government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of
a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born.
Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States
and he is still writing Sharpe.