Sharpe

glasshousejohn

glasshousejohn

New Member
Does anyone read any of Bernard Cornwells novels about Sharpe? or have you seen the TV series.

I have an interest in military battles and although fiction they do describe how we fought in the Napolionic wars.

John H:salute:
 
The series is currently running here on UK-TV, its reasonably addictive but I am not entirely certian it is an accurate depiction of warfare or life in that period.
 
The series is based on books by Bernard Cornwell, and are as historically correct as possible. The only 'author licence' is that he created Sharpe and got him 'lost' in the early part of the Wars with Spain so that he could attach him to Wellington's army. He does depict accurate events although he does sometimes swap the actual 'hero' with Sharpe. For example in Sharpe's Eagle, Sharp is shown as the first British soldier to capture a French Eagle, but at the end of the book Cornwell does put the facts right. He always adds a historical note at the end of his books to put things straight. He tries to depict how the soldiers were treated at the time in an accurate way and the BBC actually came to him to write a couple of new episodes. One book is different to the series because he did not finish in time and so the BBC made up their own ending, but he explains all this in his books. Being an ex squaddie I have quite a fascination in warfare and even managed to visit the site of Waterloo some years ago.:bravo:
 
He also wrote a series of books about the American Civil War with the main character being born in the North and fighting for the south and I found them a dam good read
 
Sharpe is a Legend! That man would definitely beat Jack Baur into a pulp, chuck norris too for that matter!

I reccommend the TV series, unfortunately I havn't got round to reading the books yet which I will have to do sometime.

One of my favourite quotes from the TV series from Harper, in Sharpe's Waterloo:

"All these years I've been fighting the bloody French, I have become sick and bloody tired of that shite music that they play."

Good stuff!
 
jequirity said:
Sharpe is a Legend! That man would definitely beat Jack Baur into a pulp, chuck norris too for that matter!

I reccommend the TV series, unfortunately I havn't got round to reading the books yet which I will have to do sometime.

One of my favourite quotes from the TV series from Harper, in Sharpe's Waterloo:

"All these years I've been fighting the bloody French, I have become sick and bloody tired of that shite music that they play."

Good stuff!
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Yes, but knowing Sharpe he'd get terribly cut up and bloodied in the act of beating these two, and probably end up with a musket ball lodged somewhere painful but not life threatening.

The books are brilliant, wonderful, lovely etc.

The TV series however is a steaming pile of poo.
 
AussieNick said:
Yes, but knowing Sharpe he'd get terribly cut up and bloodied in the act of beating these two, and probably end up with a musket ball lodged somewhere painful but not life threatening.

The books are brilliant, wonderful, lovely etc.

The TV series however is a steaming pile of poo.
Click to expand...

The series is very cheesy definitely but i've seen bigger piles of poo. When i do get round to reading the books however, it's easily possible that i might well come to the same conclusion. Otherwise its just a bit of fun and quite entertaining and quite big budget for British telly.

To continue with my over enthusiastic tone from my previous post, wouldn't it be a laugh to play a simple drinking game when you watch sharpe? i.e drink everytime:

Sharpe gets a woman
Sharpe gets a non-life threatening injury
A frenchman dies
Cooper sings a song
A British Officer gets his men killed pointlessly
A frenchman/woman speaks very good english
Someone berrates Sharpe for coming up from the ranks

etc etc!
 
jequirity said:
The series is very cheesy definitely but i've seen bigger piles of poo. When i do get round to reading the books however, it's easily possible that i might well come to the same conclusion. Otherwise its just a bit of fun and quite entertaining and quite big budget for British telly.

To continue with my over enthusiastic tone from my previous post, wouldn't it be a laugh to play a simple drinking game when you watch sharpe? i.e drink everytime:

Sharpe gets a woman
Sharpe gets a non-life threatening injury
A frenchman dies
Cooper sings a song
A British Officer gets his men killed pointlessly
A frenchman/woman speaks very good english
Someone berrates Sharpe for coming up from the ranks

etc etc!
Click to expand...

From memory he also seems to have a high fatality rate amongst his previous female conquests and I think by the series end the 95th Rifles were down to:
1xOfficer (Sharpe)
1xNCO (Harper)
2xRifleman (and I am almost sure they died at Waterloo)'
 
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