"I suppose so. It helps enormously to have visited all the battle-sites, so the
ground over which Sharpe
is fighting is real to me. I also think that when you’re writing a book which is set
in history, or which
describes vast events like a battle, then you have to offer the reader a visual guide. If
I wrote a novel
about – I don't know – police procedure in the 1990's in Britain, you don't need
to tell people what a
high street looks like, or what the inside of a bank looks like or even the inside of a
police station
because on the whole they know, but if you're writing about early nineteenth century
warfare in India
they don't know because none of us were there. Most people won’t have much idea of
the scenery
either, so it’s my job to tell them."
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