Sharpe's Escape Synopsis
It is 1810 and the French are making yet another attempt to invade Portugal. Facing them is a wasted land, stripped of food by Wellington’s orders, and captain Richard Sharpe.
But Sharpe is in trouble. His job as Captain of the Light Company is under threat and he has made a new enemy, a Portuguese criminal known as Ferragus. Sharpe, discarded by his regiment, wages a private war against Ferragus – a war fought through the burning, pillaged streets of Coimbra, Portugal’s ancient university city. Sharpe’s enemies are numerous but on his side he has Sergeant Patrick Harper, the Portuguese officer Jorge Vincent and a prickly English governess, whose first aim is to clean up Sharpe’s language.
Sharpe’s Escape begins on the great, gaunt ridge of Bussaco where a joint British and Portuguese army meets the overwhelming strength of Marshall Massena’s crack troops. It finishes at Torres Vedras where the French hopes of occupying Portugal quickly die.
This is a classic Sharpe novel, with Richard Sharpe in his finest form reunited with Patrick Harper, and facing enemies on every side.
About This Edition
About Bernard Cornwell
Born in Essex in 1944 Bernard Cornwell was adopted at the age of six weeks by two members of a strict fundamentalist sect called the Peculiar People. He grew up in a household that forbade alcohol, cigarettes, dances, television, conventional medicine and toy guns. Not surprisingly, he developed a fascination for military adventure. As a teenager he devoured CS Forester’s Hornblower novels and tried to enlist three times. Poor eyesight put paid to his dream, instead he went to university to read theology. On graduating, he became a teacher, then joined BBC’s Nationwide, working his way up the ladder to become head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland, then editor of Thames News. In 1979, his life changed when he fell in love with an American.
"Judy couldn’t live here, so I gave up my job and moved to the US. I couldn’t get a green card, and for 18 months the only thing I could do was write novels." The result was his first book about 19th century hero, Richard Sharpe, Sharpe’s Eagle.
In addition to the hugely successful Sharpe novels, Bernard Cornwell is the author of the Starbuck Chronicles, the Warlord trilogy, the Grail Quest series, the Alfred series and standalone battle books Azincourt and The Fort.
Bernard Cornwell owns houses in Cape Cod and Florida and two boats. Every year he takes two months off from his writing and spends most of his time on his 24 foot Cornish crabber, Royalist.
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