We spoke to historical novelist Bernard Cornwell, inspiration to any budding novel writers, while he was working on the novel Agincourt…

Before becoming a prolific and popular English historical novelist, Bernard Cornwell worked as a television producer in London and Belfast. He is the author of the hugely successful Sharpe series of novels, which cover the adventures of Napoleonic-era English soldier Richard Sharpe. Most of these have been filmed for TV, starring Sean Bean as the eponymous hero. Bernard Cornwell has also written a series of bestselling novels set during Arthurian Britain (The Warlord Chronicles); 9th century England (The Saxon Stories); the 100 Years’ War (The Grail Quest novels) and the American Civil War (The Starbuck Chronicles), as well as a series of contemporary thrillers.

Q. What was the first book you wrote, and what was your inspiration for it?
Bernard Cornwell: The first book I wrote was Sharpe’s Eagle, and the inspiration was desperation. I was a TV producer in Belfast when I met an American, Judy, and fell in love. She couldn’t live in Britain for family reasons, so I moved to the States where I was promptly refused a work permit. I told Judy I’d support myself by writing books. That was almost 30 years ago and Sharpe is still marching and Judy and I are still married!
 
Q. How do you organise your writing? Do you ensure that you write each day, or do you wait until you are ‘in the mood’?
Bernard Cornwell: In the mood? Laughs! If you’re a writer, you write every day. It’s a job! I’m not sure what the mood would be! I work long hours, Monday to Friday, and at the weekends too if the weather is bad. I don’t subscribe to the ‘mood’ idea, or to ‘writer’s block’. The day a nurse can phone a hospital and say she can’t work that day because of nurse’s block, and the hospital agrees with her, that’s the day I’ll accept writer’s block. It’s a myth!

Q. Who is your favourite character you’ve created?
Bernard Cornwell: Sharpe, probably. Grumpy, disagreeable, violent, moody, but also generous. He’s a rogue, but he’s a rogue who is on our side.

Q. Which other period(s) of history would you like to write about?
Bernard Cornwell: I’m not sure. Right now I’m deep in the Agincourt campaign, and once this book is finished I’ll time-travel back to King Alfred and the 9th century again, and that’s about as far ahead as I ever look!

Q. Who is your favourite author and/or novel?
Bernard Cornwell: My favourite author is John Cowper Powys, and my favourite novel is his Wolf Solent. He’s a wonderful, much-overlooked author, Dostoievskian in his ambitions. A long overdue, and utterly brilliant, biography of him has just been published; Descents of Memory by Morine Krissdottir
 
Q. Which writers do you admire?
Bernard Cornwell: Well, obviously John Cowper Powys. At a more accessible level I adore the Prey series by John Sandford. I read and re-read everything and anything by P.G. Wodehouse. Of the historical novelists? The peerless George MacDonald Fraser.
 
Q. What advice would you give to someone who is finding it difficult to finish their first novel?
Bernard Cornwell: Keep going! Don’t give it to someone else to read and critique, you are your best critic! You write the books you want to read yourself!  
 
Q. If you could take a course, what would it be in?
Bernard Cornwell: Celestial navigation. I do a lot of sailing, and have crossed oceans, but I have never mastered the sextant. I can take a reading competently enough, but the subsequent maths utterly defeats me I’m afraid…

Q. What are your plans for the future?
Bernard Cornwell: Finish my book on Agincourt, do more sailing and start the next novel about the making of England in the 9th and 10th centuries.