Bernard Cornwell

speaker

244 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Dec 2025 last heard 20 Dec

Bernard Cornwell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Dec 2025 with 1.

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It turned out it wasn't.

And it was also partly because I was reading the diary of an officer who had gone through the whole thing.

And

He claimed that the Battle of St.

Pierre was the worst battle he was in in the whole war.

And that included he'd been at Albuherra, which was a ghastly business.

And Sharp can't be at Albuherra.

And I thought, wow, that sounds rather interesting.

So that was why I thought I'll put Sharp in this dreadful battle.

So this is right before Sharp's siege, right?

Because this was... It's right before Sharp's siege, yes.

And after Sharp's regiment.

Yes.

I mean, the whole point of the book was the crossing of the River Adour.

I mean, the circumstances are that Wellington's army, I'm not going to say trapped, but it's cornered in the bottom southwest corner of France.

And he's faced with a larger army and he's faced with rivers that are going to block his advance.

And I think it was in February 1814, the British army and the

pull off this quite brilliant maneuver of crossing the estuary of the River Adour, which is far too wide.

I think the bridge would have to be something like three quarters of a mile across in a tidal estuary with a rise and fall of tide of over 15 feet.

And it was probably the most brilliant piece of military engineering of the whole Napoleonic and Revolutionary Wars.

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