Sharpe’s Christmas

Bernard Cornwell

Dec 2011 · Sold by HarperCollins UK

About this ebook

A Richard Sharpe short story, featuring scenes of action and adventure at Christmas.

‘You’ll like Irati,’ Colonel Hogan said. ‘It’s a nothing place, Richard. Hovels and misery, that’s all it is and all it ever will be, but that’s where you’re going for Christmas.’

Sharpe was sent to Irati because maybe the French were going there. The garrison planned to march at Christmas in the hope that their enemies would be too bloated with beef and wine to fight, but Hogan had got wind of their plans and was now setting his snares on the only two routes that the escaping French could use. One, the eastern road, was by far the easier route, for it entered France through a low pass, and Hogan guessed it was that route that the French would choose. But there was a second road, a tight, hard, steep road, and that had to be blocked as well and so the Prince of Wales’s Own Volunteers, Sharpe’s regiment, would climb into the hills and spend their Christmas at a place of hovels and misery called Irati.

Soldier, hero, rogue – Sharpe is the man you always want on your side. Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears.

Ratings and reviews

Like all of B. C's. books, it is told in an accurate, descriptive, way. But, it is also told in a way that draws you into the book & almost makes you feel as if you were there & a part of it all. He is such a good writer!

Good. But I thought Sharpe's Ransom came with Sharpe's Christmas which it does not which was disappointing hence three stars.

Short but ok. Not the best Sharpe, but amusing nonetheless.

About the author

Bernard Cornwell was born in London, raised in Essex, and now lives mainly in the USA with his wife. 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.