Speaker series: Bernard Cornwell – Sharpe's Storm
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Spectator’s associate editor Toby Young sits down with master storyteller Bernard Cornwell, author of more than 50 international bestselling novels, including The Last Kingdom and much-loved Sharpe series. They delve into Cornwell’s life and career, discuss the real history behind his riveting tales of war and heroism and explore the enduring appeal of historical fiction. This event marks the launch of Sharpe’s Storm, a bold new chapter in the saga of Richard Sharpe, set amid the chaos of 1813 France.
This discussion was part of the Spectator's speaker series. To see more on our upcoming events, go to events.spectator.co.uk.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give something clever this Christmas. |
| 0:02.2 | Treat a loved one to a year of The Spectator, in print and online, for just £99. |
| 0:07.9 | And we'll send you a bottle of our very own English sparkling wine worth £48 £48, absolutely free. |
| 0:15.3 | Have a bright and sparkling Christmas with the Spectator. |
| 0:17.7 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash Christmas. |
| 0:26.6 | Good evening and welcome to the Spectator event's exclusive speaker series where we bring you closer to the lives of those who shape the culture and ideas of today. |
| 0:36.9 | For tonight's event, please give a very |
| 0:38.7 | warm round of applause to your host, the Conservative Life Peer and founder and director of the Free Speech |
| 0:44.1 | Union, Toby Young. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone for coming tonight. We've got a real |
| 0:51.2 | treat in store for you. So, Bernard Cornwall is the author of more |
| 0:55.4 | than 60 novels, including the Warlord Chronicles, the Grail Quest, the Starbucks series, |
| 1:01.5 | the Saxon stories, and the Sharp series, to which he's just added one more sharp storm, |
| 1:07.5 | taking the total number of sharp novels to 25. Described by the Boston Globe as the |
| 1:13.8 | greatest writer of historical fiction today, he sold over 20 million copies of the Sharp series alone. |
| 1:21.5 | Numerous novels of his have been adapted for television, and he's been recognised with an OBE. |
| 1:28.2 | Surely it won't be long before Bernard Cornwall receives the knighthood he so richly |
| 1:34.3 | deserved. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the soon-to-be Sir Bernard Cornwall. |
| 1:43.7 | So my first question is, how many novels have you written? |
| 1:48.2 | According to Wikipedia, it's over 60. |
| 1:50.9 | A site called book notification says 67. |
| 1:54.7 | And good reads says 537. |
| 1:59.2 | Distinct works, although that... I think it's it's 65. I honestly don't quite know. |
... |
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