The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - June 06, 2026


PREVIEW： Chronicles #50 ｜ Sharpe's Eagle with Beau & Samson Part 1


Episode Stats


Length

27 minutes

Words per minute

172.98596

Word count

4,754

Sentence count

189


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Chronicles and well sir upon reaching the 50th episode of Chronicles
00:00:21.960 I decided it best to cover Sharpe's eagle that's my style sir and here with me today is Bo and
00:00:29.000 Samson. And we're basically just going to have just a hugely good time talking all about Sharp.
00:00:38.200 I mean, it's not more complicated than that. We're just going to have a damn good conversation
00:00:42.440 talking about Sharp's Eagle, the first novel that great writer, historical fiction writer,
00:00:48.280 Bernard Cornwell wrote back in 1981. And then since then, of course, has gone on to led to ITV's
00:00:56.120 incredible series with, of course, Sean Bean.
00:01:00.080 He's very proud of his hardback, ladies and gentlemen.
00:01:02.740 He feels the need to model it in high definition.
00:01:05.180 But we're going to talk about all of that.
00:01:07.700 We're going to talk about Sharp's Eagle and the actual first novel as well.
00:01:12.400 And, yeah, like I say, just have a bloody good conversation about Sharp
00:01:16.240 because this has been requested for some time.
00:01:19.100 Every now and then I just see a comment.
00:01:20.860 When are you going to cover Sharp?
00:01:22.120 When are you going to cover Sharp?
00:01:23.080 Every time you quote it on a main podcast,
00:01:25.540 there's always a couple of people like,
00:01:27.160 Luca, he hasn't done Sharp yet.
00:01:29.520 Please, can you tell him to do it, please?
00:01:31.800 Please.
00:01:32.920 I'll get around to it.
00:01:34.320 Well, you finally got your wish then,
00:01:35.620 ain't you, you bastards?
00:01:37.140 Plus, also, it's very good.
00:01:38.700 That's a very good bean.
00:01:41.500 Also, the real Peninsular War, right?
00:01:43.140 I'm here for the real battle of Talavera and everything.
00:01:45.460 Yeah.
00:01:46.480 Because on my channel, History Bro, check that out,
00:01:48.860 I have done the first, I think, four novels,
00:01:51.740 but chronologically through Sharpe's life.
00:01:54.120 So I started with Sharpe's Tiger.
00:01:56.780 And then I did, what is it?
00:01:58.020 Sharpe's Fortress, Sharpe's Trafalgar, I think.
00:02:00.380 Three or four of them.
00:02:02.180 But not this one, because this is actually,
00:02:04.560 in terms of chronologically through Sharpe's life,
00:02:07.940 it's about a third of the way through.
00:02:09.780 But as you say, it's the first one Cornwall wrote.
00:02:12.680 Yes.
00:02:13.700 Which is remarkable.
00:02:14.380 I'm sure you're going to talk all about it,
00:02:15.360 but it's really remarkable how much of the lore is already there.
00:02:18.180 But anyway, I'll let you lead the discussion.
00:02:20.680 Well, no, not at all.
00:02:21.740 It's interesting to just come to that exact point, that when you read the preface,
00:02:26.760 I don't know if it's in probably the preface of all of Sharp's Eagle,
00:02:30.560 but he talks about the fact that he really wanted to write.
00:02:36.020 He was obviously fascinated by the Peninsula War ever since he was a young boy,
00:02:39.900 and the Napoleonic War more broadly, because he was a huge Hornblower fan growing up.
00:02:46.440 He loved the novels of C.S. Forrester.
00:02:49.280 But at the same time, he was obviously, he was like,
00:02:52.540 well, there's all this naval fiction.
00:02:55.120 Where's the one for the army?
00:02:56.460 Where's the one that gets to tell the tale of Talavera and Baderhoff?
00:03:00.240 And that's what he wanted to do first.
00:03:01.860 He wanted to write this novel about Baderhoff,
00:03:05.160 which I believe ends up being sort of like the backdrop of Sharp's Company.
00:03:08.780 It's the third book he wrote.
00:03:09.660 Yeah, but he was like, I've never written a novel before,
00:03:13.520 so I just need a bit of a run-up at it first.
00:03:15.840 I just need a few practices, and so this is what he put sharp
00:03:21.080 into 1809, Battle of Talavera, and if I've got the history of it right,
00:03:27.360 the British, the first main thrust into Spain to try and not,
00:03:32.660 with Wellington's army, to try and dislodge Joseph Bonaparte.
00:03:36.820 Is that right?
00:03:37.800 Yeah, yeah.
00:03:38.380 I mean, there's way more to it than that.
00:03:41.120 I mean, before the retreat to Corona in the middle of Spain.
00:03:44.820 Oh, of course.
00:03:45.420 But still, I suppose, after defeating the French in Portugal.
00:03:51.020 So the political world is a real ding-dong back and forth, basically, is what it is.
00:03:55.320 It's not the first time English troops are in Spain, but still, okay.
00:04:00.120 Yeah, nonetheless.
00:04:02.020 Because that's the thing that I love the real history, right?
00:04:06.060 It's Charles Oman's history.
00:04:07.360 I always talk about Oman, don't I?
00:04:08.740 Yeah.
00:04:08.880 But he's, and I quote him a lot from my monarchy stuff, but he's real magnum opus.
00:04:15.200 is on the Peninsular War, and that's the best stuff.
00:04:20.040 On Epochs, where I did a nine-part series on Napoleon,
00:04:24.820 two or even three of those episodes are just on the Peninsular War,
00:04:27.940 which is completely too much.
00:04:30.400 If you're only doing nine parts on all of Napoleon,
00:04:32.320 spend a third of that on the Peninsular War.
00:04:34.340 It just suggests that I'm fascinated by the Peninsular War.
00:04:37.540 But, yeah, I mean, what a first novel.
00:04:40.000 So good.
00:04:40.580 What a ridiculously great first novel.
00:04:42.660 like unbelievably unbelievably good for first level and anyway um it is odd though well not
00:04:48.660 odd he could do whatever he wanted of course but in hindsight it looks kind of weird that um he
00:04:54.200 started it there of all places why why are there i mean he's probably explained it in an interview
00:04:59.080 but i've i've not seen it but yeah why there of all places because of course he goes back to like
00:05:04.060 the retreat to corona and he goes back and he does the battle of like um of amiro i don't know
00:05:11.520 there's a book about Ronica, I don't know. But anyway, to start it sort of just before
00:05:16.720 the Battle of Talavera, why are there? I don't know. But it works, it's fine, isn't it?
00:05:22.500 It does, yeah.
00:05:23.300 There's no problem with that. Perhaps Cornwall was particularly fascinated by Talavera, I
00:05:29.600 don't know.
00:05:29.900 Well, in the forward or preface, he specifically states he wants to start with the Battle of
00:05:36.820 Badajoz.
00:05:38.000 Badajoz.
00:05:39.180 Badajoz.
00:05:39.700 Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm intentionally not pronouncing the Spanish or the Portuguese correctly.
00:05:44.640 I will not apologise.
00:05:46.780 But yeah, he wanted to start with that specific battle because it interested him in particular.
00:05:51.000 Siege.
00:05:51.580 Siege, yeah.
00:05:52.440 And said, I'm not worthy of starting with that.
00:05:55.900 Essentially, I want to build myself up.
00:05:57.980 So I don't think it was specifically Talavera that interested him.
00:06:02.780 It was just an event that happened before Badajoz.
00:06:06.560 Okay, fair enough.
00:06:08.220 Fair enough.
00:06:08.580 And that's just how the cookie grumbled.
00:06:11.860 But to write a novel like this where, if anyone doesn't know,
00:06:15.240 like the last third, the second half, the last quarter anyway,
00:06:20.160 is the Battle of Talavera.
00:06:22.980 And there's quite a few subplots in it, aren't there?
00:06:26.160 Oh, yeah, many.
00:06:27.240 It's quite a meandering book in that sense.
00:06:29.960 A lot like when we first read Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander.
00:06:33.840 There's a lot of weebs.
00:06:34.660 There's a lot of just little moments in it as well
00:06:37.900 that can get lost and you think oh no that happened and that happened because it's actually
00:06:42.580 very action-packed oh yeah novel it's much faster paced than the tv show yeah i thought yeah because
00:06:51.120 i've watched sharpe's eagle the sean beam tv thing yeah like three or four maybe five times
00:06:57.540 and re-watched it at weekend just gone for like the yeah the fourth or fifth time and
00:07:02.780 it's sort of slower
00:07:04.980 than the book
00:07:06.280 how is that possible
00:07:08.000 and they
00:07:08.300 they change it around
00:07:09.500 a fair bit
00:07:10.020 for the TV show
00:07:10.820 don't they
00:07:11.120 there's a whole
00:07:13.140 couple of
00:07:13.680 subplots
00:07:14.460 they just don't
00:07:14.940 bother with
00:07:15.440 and a couple
00:07:15.840 other bits and bobs
00:07:16.440 they tweak
00:07:16.860 and move around
00:07:17.620 and do a bit differently
00:07:18.280 but that's the
00:07:19.280 prerogative of a
00:07:19.880 screenwriter
00:07:20.280 okay
00:07:20.660 whatever
00:07:21.400 but I thought
00:07:22.440 it was
00:07:22.700 I thought it was
00:07:23.860 quite slow
00:07:24.640 the TV version
00:07:26.280 there's a few bits
00:07:27.300 in it where I'm like
00:07:27.880 okay get on with it
00:07:29.480 okay
00:07:29.840 whereas the book's
00:07:30.560 not like that
00:07:31.020 well I don't find it
00:07:31.640 is the book's
00:07:32.100 real page turner. It's the first time
00:07:34.160 I've read a smaller
00:07:35.740 novel like this in a while where I haven't
00:07:38.140 been able to put the book bloody down.
00:07:40.820 Whereas when I watched, because I
00:07:42.060 only read this a couple of months ago for the first
00:07:44.060 time, I then went and watched
00:07:46.020 the
00:07:46.680 two first episodes of the Sharp TV show.
00:07:50.260 I haven't watched any of the others yet, but
00:07:51.880 Sharp's Rifles
00:07:53.840 and then Sharp's Eagle.
00:07:56.040 I won't mention Rifles here because it's a bit
00:07:57.920 spoilery, but the
00:07:59.300 actual episode of Eagle, it's
00:08:01.900 It feels like a lot has been sliced away and chopped around
00:08:06.080 because a lot of the stuff in the later episodes
00:08:08.020 relies on various other things that have been chopped and changed around.
00:08:12.340 And I think that the book is a far better medium for the story.
00:08:17.740 It's much better.
00:08:18.500 The book's much, much better.
00:08:20.440 Though I do adore the show.
00:08:22.240 I do adore the show.
00:08:23.840 I love the show.
00:08:24.660 It's really enjoyable, yeah.
00:08:25.740 But first time watch, it was honestly...
00:08:28.080 Sit down and get ready for it.
00:08:29.340 It was an authentic adaptation.
00:08:31.900 of Sharpe's Eagle, but the book still caps it off.
00:08:35.380 One of the things I suppose we'll end up saying
00:08:37.300 is just that because of the limitations of budget and TV, though,
00:08:40.960 one of the things that you really do see
00:08:43.220 is not 20 men charging across the field
00:08:47.020 and being like, oh, yep, that was Talavera.
00:08:49.840 When Cornwell, when we get to the final battle,
00:08:52.340 the scope with which he describes it with is genuinely impressive.
00:08:57.120 And for him to be able to coordinate
00:08:58.680 across all these different paragraphs,
00:09:00.820 just all the different troop movements and who's going where and everything
00:09:05.060 is very masterful.
00:09:07.100 You can tell he can rotate the Battle of Talavera in his mind like the apple.
00:09:13.920 No, he cares.
00:09:14.720 He really cares about being true to reality,
00:09:19.080 even if Sharp and Sharp's company are not real.
00:09:25.020 He has done his utmost to make a story that could theoretically fit into reality.
00:09:30.820 And he cares so deeply about that real history
00:09:35.140 that I'm sure you'll tell the story
00:09:37.240 about the canons later on the show.
00:09:39.500 Yeah, I mean, the South Essex isn't real.
00:09:41.860 Yeah, I mean, I would love, obviously, to make it clear,
00:09:45.040 I love the TV shows.
00:09:46.800 I was actually a kid when they was on TV,
00:09:49.000 a very early teenager, 12, 13 or something,
00:09:51.240 when they're first on.
00:09:53.060 And so they're part of my childhood.
00:09:54.660 I can't praise them enough.
00:09:57.960 But I will make one or two criticisms,
00:09:59.860 which is well the main one which is really obvious as soon as you watch it is that the
00:10:05.480 budget wasn't big enough to have loads of extras yeah because the back of talavera is no small
00:10:10.500 affair it's not one of those giant napoleonic ones it's hundreds of thousands of sides
00:10:14.060 well is it something like 45 to 55 000 a side something yeah that's that's no small affair no
00:10:21.900 but they've got like 30 extras a side something like that in the tv show and it's like this is
00:10:28.100 supposed to be the back of talavera and it's a little field in the middle of crimea and it's
00:10:32.780 yeah doesn't really look like yeah talavera like at most they've got most they've got 50 extras
00:10:38.420 aside haven't they something like that but anyway anyway anyway so let's get ahead of us no let's
00:10:44.120 begin by just talking about so exactly they've had the um the flight from corona um before all
00:10:50.980 of this is of course happened that the british have been on the back foot of course all of
00:10:56.180 Napoleon's marshals are obviously about Spain and we just we're originally greeted with this
00:11:03.560 fanfare of the British troops marching through Portuguese town and obviously everyone's very
00:11:11.640 much cheering and caught the way that Cornwell just sets up very concisely where you are in the
00:11:16.620 war and what's going on and like who's got the upper hand it's all done really really clean and
00:11:22.360 then you're immediately just brought into uh the life of Richard Sharp now obviously despite
00:11:28.260 Sean Bean's iconic Yorkshire voice and I truly can't imagine uh anyone else for the part at this
00:11:35.800 rate and honestly neither could Cornwall by the end who obviously after writing about 10 uh 10
00:11:42.540 Sharp novels ended up I think sort of like trying to integrate the version of Bean's version of
00:11:49.340 Sharp into the novels because he whenever he was writing Sharp he heard Bean's voice he saw
00:11:55.600 Bean's physicality and so it was an incredible way that those two became one in the same but for now
00:12:02.340 he was so Sharp is born in London as the son of a prostitute and an unknown father has no idea who
00:12:12.440 his father is um conwell uh commented one time that he thought to be mischievous that he might
00:12:19.880 make sharp's father french but he decided against it and decided it would have just been too silly
00:12:26.480 um but sharp is uh obviously coming from that background someone who has of course come
00:12:32.800 from the ranks yeah and you know obviously there are previous novels describing his life as a
00:12:38.560 private, climbing, all the way to where he is now as Lieutenant Sharp. But Sharp is a man who
00:12:45.980 is desperately, he's ambitious, he wants promotion, and he's very resentful of the
00:12:54.360 upper-class aristocrats because of the privilege that they have. But I suppose one thing to say
00:13:00.020 about Sharp is that that resentment is, it's very much a resentment based on envy. It's not an
00:13:05.960 actually oh we shouldn't have these things and this is all terrible and people get to go fox
00:13:11.320 hunting and they get to drink a carrot at the table and talk about you know things in polite
00:13:16.280 society it's not that sharp actually hates these things it's just that he feels inept and he feels
00:13:22.640 like an outsider whenever he's brought into them and there's this uh sort of like inner fight this
00:13:28.520 sort of like working class grit within his character that is kind of like i'll show them
00:13:33.860 I'll climb that high.
00:13:35.600 And when I do it, it'll be purely based on merit,
00:13:39.160 not because someone's bought a colonel ship or whatever it may be.
00:13:43.740 Well, the vast majority of the first few books
00:13:46.440 is him fighting against that system.
00:13:49.300 All of the officers around him are people who've bought their way in
00:13:53.040 or who have been grown up in absolute privilege
00:13:57.080 and just been handed stuff for free.
00:13:58.940 They've handed the officership, handed the captaincy.
00:14:00.960 multiple times he's just basically completely overridden and gone no no your battlefield
00:14:06.160 honors mean nothing compared to this guy who spent however many thousand pounds um give or take
00:14:11.640 for adjusted for inflation um for that role or for that uh um commission commission you can buy a
00:14:19.120 commission yeah um well it's not just the first few books it's all the books yes that's hard baked
00:14:24.260 into uh sharp at all levels uh you've mentioned quite a few things there so to begin with
00:14:31.000 Yeah, he's always described as, from London, tall and dark, black-haired or dark.
00:14:39.860 Sean Bean's none of those things.
00:14:41.200 No.
00:14:41.620 He's actually blonde, not particularly tall, and an older.
00:14:46.740 But yeah, I mean, I know Bernard Cornwall said in interviews and things
00:14:50.360 that he loved Sean Bean as the TV version.
00:14:53.760 And after a while, after those came out, he just started writing it more for that.
00:14:58.940 Sharp became Sean Bean
00:15:00.660 yeah
00:15:00.980 after the show came out
00:15:02.120 and I'll tell you
00:15:02.880 which is great
00:15:03.900 it's funny
00:15:04.300 it's great
00:15:04.680 the audiobook version
00:15:05.660 I've been listening to
00:15:06.320 over the weekend
00:15:06.800 that
00:15:07.920 whoever's voice acting
00:15:09.080 that is
00:15:09.820 putting on the northern accent
00:15:11.520 as hard as he possibly can
00:15:13.520 although it does sound
00:15:14.800 a bit derivative
00:15:15.420 after a while
00:15:17.040 but
00:15:17.280 also that same voice actor
00:15:19.100 attempts
00:15:19.520 attempts Irish accents as well
00:15:21.140 right
00:15:21.480 you will hear no Irish attempts
00:15:24.060 from me today
00:15:24.760 ladies and gentlemen
00:15:25.680 you've mentioned
00:15:26.660 a few other things
00:15:27.720 as well
00:15:27.980 worth picking up on is that I'm pretty sure I've seen Cornwall say this or if not I've imagined it
00:15:35.320 either way it seems to be true that what he loves first and foremost is Wellington
00:15:40.240 even though the the story is about Richard Chubb and the chosen men of the 95th of whatever
00:15:47.660 really it's a vehicle to talk about Wellington because you know even the first stories are
00:15:57.120 wellington in india um so um when you look at it that way because there's some novels there's a few
00:16:03.460 of the sharp novels where wellington's not in it at all somewhere he's in it loads more than this
00:16:07.840 one and he's in this one a bit isn't he not all that much but a bit yeah um like every now and
00:16:13.320 again you see napoleon or cornwall actually does a a scene with napoleon but usually napoleon's
00:16:20.580 not in them at all well i mean it's the peninsula one after after sir john moore's retreat to
00:16:26.060 corona like the
00:16:27.040 pony's not even in
00:16:27.880 Spain so I believe
00:16:29.460 Sharp's devil is an
00:16:31.000 exception to that but
00:16:31.920 anyway yeah it's
00:16:33.560 really a way to the
00:16:37.080 whole Sharp thing is
00:16:38.420 a way to just explore
00:16:40.520 really Arthur
00:16:41.760 Wellesley yes so he's
00:16:43.900 a fan of that first
00:16:44.920 and foremost and I
00:16:45.640 love that whenever in
00:16:46.380 any Sharp book when
00:16:47.160 you get a bit of Sir
00:16:48.660 Arthur yeah or sorry
00:16:50.640 the Lord Wellington
00:16:51.440 that's just great right
00:16:53.040 you love that bit
00:16:53.720 oh we've got a
00:16:54.580 Wellington scene
00:16:55.260 He is essentially
00:16:58.860 Sharp himself
00:17:00.420 Is sort of an avatar
00:17:01.340 For us as a layman
00:17:02.900 To see what it was like
00:17:04.400 To be under
00:17:05.340 In Wellington's campaigns
00:17:07.240 In the Peninsular War
00:17:07.860 And get to meet him sometimes
00:17:08.960 Or be in his presence
00:17:09.840 It's almost like
00:17:11.720 Someone reading a newspaper serial
00:17:13.080 At the time going
00:17:13.680 Oh what's Wellington done this week
00:17:15.220 But instead
00:17:16.680 You're in the Peninsular War
00:17:18.200 Basically achieving
00:17:20.640 All the cool things
00:17:21.540 That Wellington does
00:17:22.260 Sharp is the one
00:17:23.200 Who's behind a lot of those
00:17:24.740 as it turns on.
00:17:26.300 Well, Sharpe's a classic example
00:17:27.640 of that sort of literary device
00:17:29.940 where you put one of your characters
00:17:32.200 everywhere of interest.
00:17:33.920 And Bernard Cornwall,
00:17:34.440 completely unashamedly, does that.
00:17:36.600 I mean, Sharpe's Trafalgar is stupid.
00:17:38.780 Stupid? I love it.
00:17:40.080 Crazy example of that.
00:17:42.140 It's just, I'm just going to contrive the thing.
00:17:44.300 So he's at the Battle of Trafalgar.
00:17:46.280 Okay, so anything that's of interest
00:17:47.940 in the penitentiary world,
00:17:48.720 just Sharpe's there.
00:17:50.340 He does that for most of the other books.
00:17:52.100 The ones he writes retroactively,
00:17:53.480 He's like, how can I get Sharp to be at this other interesting thing,
00:17:57.340 even though I've already written a story that happens at the same time as this?
00:18:01.240 Actually, I'll just move some dates around.
00:18:03.040 I've seen some people say, how can Sharp be at that particular battle or engagement
00:18:07.880 when in an earlier book, you've already said he's over there,
00:18:10.380 and Bernard Cole was like, I don't care.
00:18:11.720 Don't worry about it.
00:18:12.480 He's a fast bastard, isn't he?
00:18:13.780 Yeah, it's fiction.
00:18:15.800 I've made it up.
00:18:16.340 It's up to me.
00:18:16.980 Don't worry about it.
00:18:17.900 Fair enough then.
00:18:19.160 Yeah, cool, good.
00:18:19.860 His quote to the saying is, these are my books.
00:18:22.500 I can do what I want.
00:18:23.480 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:24.820 It doesn't have to completely make perfect sense.
00:18:27.700 Like, for example, there's one where,
00:18:30.340 there's one later novel where it says,
00:18:33.260 Sharp had never met Daddy Hill before.
00:18:35.540 But he totally has.
00:18:37.160 Right.
00:18:37.620 He 100% has.
00:18:38.700 And when, again, like a fan,
00:18:40.080 asked Bernard Cornwall on like a forum or something.
00:18:41.960 He's like, I don't care.
00:18:43.900 Anyway, so one of the things you said about
00:18:45.540 getting back to the novel itself,
00:18:47.720 what Bernard Cornwall's brilliant at, I think.
00:18:50.860 Honestly, world class, brilliant.
00:18:53.240 As amazing as his first novel is how he deals with exposition
00:18:57.480 because that's difficult to do a little bit of exposition
00:19:02.060 which isn't clunky and doesn't take you out of the story.
00:19:06.000 Especially for someone who they may not know the history behind it
00:19:12.040 and not just natural history buffs like you.
00:19:14.180 Like me, when I first read this, I expected to be bombarded
00:19:19.500 it by a complete barrage of historical terms um like giant paragraphs about historical troop
00:19:26.080 movements all of that i got none of that yeah the everything was explained in a really simple to
00:19:31.800 understand but really interesting way which made me want to learn more but it also didn't treat me
00:19:35.940 like an idiot for not knowing it so but that thing of like starting a novel because the first page of
00:19:42.200 a novel is absolutely critical to make people want to read it on like unbelievably critical
00:19:46.340 So that magic sort of literary sensibility
00:19:54.960 to introduce characters, start a novel off, start a book off,
00:20:00.540 and the exposition isn't clunky,
00:20:02.360 the introduction of the characters isn't clunky.
00:20:03.920 In fact, it makes you want to read on.
00:20:06.100 All those things, whatever that is,
00:20:07.140 if you could bottle that and sell it,
00:20:09.800 if you could teach people that,
00:20:12.160 everyone would be making, writing, and selling novels, wouldn't they?
00:20:16.000 yeah uh but obviously obviously case without saying cornwall's like a master true master of
00:20:22.120 it where you never think uh like even for a second you think oh okay i've got it boring
00:20:26.120 come on get on with it not not a touch of that no or as you say like really difficult like
00:20:31.520 terminology that you're supposed to understand and you don't know and you have to go off and
00:20:34.600 find out what you really meant by that or yeah starting in the middle of the peninsula war well
00:20:39.720 third of the way through it or whatever yeah and that you're not like wait i really need to know
00:20:44.200 why that is or what how how did we get here whatever that magic touch is to make the reader
00:20:51.660 just go okay i'm just on board i'm just on board with these characters now and what's happening
00:20:55.780 now yeah i need to know what happens next yeah whatever that is bernicol was just the master
00:20:59.920 yeah he's just the master sharps eagle specifically is great because the entire first paragraph of
00:21:04.260 chapter one not the forward or preface yeah it's basically him going oh those portuguese they love
00:21:09.540 the british the british are so cool can you see how cool the british are the portuguese
00:21:13.860 love them that's essentially yes still true to this day i've heard yeah well our alliance goes
00:21:19.940 back to what the 12th century or something yeah it's like 1350 something okay yeah um but yeah
00:21:27.220 nonetheless um that that thing of um how you make someone in in the middle of sharp's career
00:21:37.000 in the middle of a war, in the middle of a troop movement.
00:21:43.380 And it just worked.
00:21:45.020 You're just like, okay, I'm on board.
00:21:46.740 So it's superb writing, like novel writing.
00:21:51.760 Absolutely.
00:21:52.700 And so Sharp is already at the beginning of the novel.
00:21:56.240 He's been injured.
00:21:57.080 He's got maggots at his leg and he's being nursed back.
00:22:00.120 Yeah, he's in the middle of, he's just been wounded.
00:22:02.020 You don't see that.
00:22:02.960 No.
00:22:03.500 And they don't elaborate either.
00:22:04.720 They just say a French officer did this to them.
00:22:06.620 Yeah, but he's being nursed by the ever-dependable,
00:22:10.700 everyone's favourite Paddy, Patrick Harper.
00:22:13.780 Pat.
00:22:14.560 Yeah, bloody old Pat.
00:22:16.520 And obviously Harper is just incredible.
00:22:19.500 Harper is such a constant, loyal companion.
00:22:23.720 There's a part in it, isn't there, where it says
00:22:25.380 they were as close to friends as it is possible
00:22:28.740 for a lieutenant and a sergeant to be.
00:22:31.540 You know, it does bear in mind that difference of rank
00:22:34.580 means there has to be a little bit of distance and formality there however in you know in a
00:22:40.780 private conversation with one another just as a confidant they're absolutely um you know inseparable
00:22:46.980 from one another and this is what you constantly see when and one of the things to pull up about
00:22:53.120 what you were saying samson about is that when you've got all of these british officers there
00:22:58.940 as well because that's the thing as well so many of them it's always the british officers who would
00:23:04.420 getting in the way right they're always incompetent sharp is always the one having to like save the
00:23:09.760 day and bring it but really this isn't this isn't actually based on sort of any sort of like
00:23:15.560 subliminal like class conscious subversion from cornwell it's really just like the mechanics
00:23:22.620 of how a story has to function because originally before he'd written the novels
00:23:27.280 um cornwell had said well obviously the french should have been the bad guys but i found as
00:23:33.800 writing the story that it's very hard to just constantly bring sharp into contact with those
00:23:39.740 characters he spends most of the story surrounded by other british officers and so it's that's where
00:23:45.940 the conflict has got to be it's got to be with the people that he's constantly um surrounding
00:23:52.320 himself with but i think it's this thing that it goes to show you as well the fact that sharp's
00:23:58.260 not just the one who talks the talk he walks the walk because harper and hagman and all of his
00:24:04.100 chosen men are so loyal to him you know and you see why they're so loyal to him uh very very
00:24:12.200 quickly within just this one single novel um and so his character comes across very very pragmatic
00:24:18.920 very strong uh with um his own firm they're not gentlemen's morals but he does have very strong
00:24:25.360 morals of his own yeah one thing i'll say about sharp uh if you read enough of the novels you get
00:24:32.520 it is that he's he's a violent murderer yeah right yeah you see that in this one hornblower
00:24:40.020 is a good boy yes he's a hornblower gentleman yeah oh absolutely yeah and he does everything
00:24:46.360 nearly everything by the book and he's a nice pleasant person um and um he's master and
00:24:53.640 commander oh jack albury yeah jack albury and his friend oh stephen again they're good honorable
00:24:59.780 nice decent officer men um richard sharp will drag you into a dark and dally and cut your throat
00:25:08.700 and not give and not care like he's a killer yeah he is an absolute killer yeah and uh
00:25:14.320 unapologetically so harper as well yeah harper as well but then there's that that magic of making
00:25:20.060 someone that is really sort of morally kind of a baddie but you're just one he's 100 the hero and
00:25:28.700 you 100 uh root for him of course you do yeah the fact that he's a badass only adds to how much you
00:25:35.620 love him yeah of course but he's not nice he's not nice at all so i mean that's one thing one
00:25:42.320 of the other quick things one of the main things that he came up from the ranks he came from
00:25:47.180 nothing and and how rare it is for an enlisted man to ever get a commission of any type and even
00:25:53.160 if you do you'll never you'll never be have been born a gentleman you just won't have done no and
00:25:58.040 then the various class things again a lot of the novels i wouldn't say formulaic that's unfair
00:26:03.300 but a lot of the novels are similar in the broadest sense of the uh sharp gets in trouble
00:26:10.300 for being such a badass essentially right and the officer class look down their nose at him
00:26:16.480 and in the end he turns the table on them all
00:26:20.700 and wins everything and wins the day and he's the best.
00:26:23.220 Basically that, over and over and over again
00:26:25.560 and set it at the different battles of the peninsula, basically.
00:26:29.420 But, yeah, again, the theme of the, yeah,
00:26:35.600 his own offices are the things that stand away.
00:26:37.780 Often the French in sharp novels are sympathetic.
00:26:42.980 Often they're the baddies nominally,
00:26:45.200 but often they're actually noble and worthy opponents and stuff.
00:26:50.620 This is particularly prominent in one of the early battle scenes
00:26:54.960 in Sharpe's Eagle where the French,
00:26:58.660 when they encounter the British in the battle
00:27:02.800 we'll talk about a bit later,
00:27:05.480 in the aftermath of the battle,
00:27:07.100 the French are honourable in their post-battle communication.
00:27:13.200 They treat each other like human beings in comparison to this book's major villains.
00:27:20.300 Yes, which we will get to in just a moment.
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