Bernard Cornwell Q&A

"Q: What do you think would have happened if Wellington, born earlier, had been put in charge of containing the colonial uprising? (Yikes! Maybe you never would have had to create Sharpe...)

BC: The Colonial uprising would have been subdued, I suspect, for he was a genius. But, interestingly, the Duke was asked, in 1814, to take over the British forces then fighting in North America and he refused, on the grounds that a war there was unwinnable - the US having too much ground that they could always trade for time - just as the Russians did in defeating Napoleon and Hitler. He warned against fighting in the US, sensible man, but it's still an intriguing question. Certainly he was far more sensible than any of the British generals who fought in the was of American Independence, and a far greater soldier, so undoubtedly he would have made a difference, though I suspect, like Sir William Howe, his basic sympathies would have been with the rebels."

We just finished the BBC Sharpe's Rifles series, a historical fiction set in the Napoleonic wars and starring Sean Beam (and based on the novles of Bernard Cornwell, interviewed here). It's great fun and highly recommended.