Bernard Cornwell, pseudonym of Bernard Wiggins Biography

British writer of historical novels, born in London. After studying at London University, he worked as a television producer for a number of years. His novels include Sharpe's Eagle (1981), which narrated the exploits of Richard Sharpe in Wellington's Army, as he fights his way up through the ranks; he continued his adventures in many subsequent novels, including Sharpe's Waterloo (1990) and Sharpe's Battle (1995), about the Peninsular War. The novels are carefully researched, the author having explored all the battlefields he writes about, but they should be taken as exciting narratives rather than military history. Other novels include Redcoat (1987), about Philadelphia in 1777; Stormchild (1991), an ecopolitical thriller; and a sequence of novels, Rebel (1993), Copperhead (1994), and Battle Flag (1995), about Nathaniel Starbuck, a heroic Yankee fighting on the wrong side in the American Civil War.