Bernard Cornwell Interview on WritersFM
As mentioned recently on this blog, Bernard Cornwell is the latest big-name writer to be interviewed on WritersFM, WCCL's Internet radio station for writers.
Bernard is a prolific and popular British historical novelist. His best-known books feature the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an English soldier, and are set in the Napoleonic era. Many of the books were filmed for a TV series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe, produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. Other series written by Bernard Cornwell include 'The Starbuck Chronicles', set during the American Civil War, and his latest series 'The Saxon Stories', set in 9th century England.
The WritersFM Interview with Bernard was conducted by Karl Moore as usual, via the phone to Bernard at his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The interview runs to about an hour and is entertaining as well as being informative (it's actually the first WritersFM interview where I've laughed out loud in several places!).
Fans of Bernard Cornwell's books will particularly enjoy listening. Historical fiction isn't really my thing, but I was still fascinated as he talked about how he wrote his first novel. I won't spoil the story here, but it begins in the least likely way imaginable, with an American travel agents' trip to Northern Ireland. Bernard's story contains coincidences and strokes of fate (I won't say luck, because Bernard clearly grasped the opportunities fate threw at him) so amazing that if you read them in a book you would dismiss them as utterly implausible - yet in Bernard's case they actually happened. The story of how he met his agent is pretty amazing too, and reveals the importance to a writer of being persistent!
You can either wait for Bernard's interview to be broadcast on the station's normal rotation, download it as a podcast, or (probably the easiest option) stream it from the Podcasts page. And if you'd like to find out more about Bernard, check out his web page at www.bernardcornwell.net - not, as you'll hear explained in the interview, .com!
Bernard is a prolific and popular British historical novelist. His best-known books feature the adventures of Richard Sharpe, an English soldier, and are set in the Napoleonic era. Many of the books were filmed for a TV series starring Sean Bean as Sharpe, produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. Other series written by Bernard Cornwell include 'The Starbuck Chronicles', set during the American Civil War, and his latest series 'The Saxon Stories', set in 9th century England.
The WritersFM Interview with Bernard was conducted by Karl Moore as usual, via the phone to Bernard at his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The interview runs to about an hour and is entertaining as well as being informative (it's actually the first WritersFM interview where I've laughed out loud in several places!).
Fans of Bernard Cornwell's books will particularly enjoy listening. Historical fiction isn't really my thing, but I was still fascinated as he talked about how he wrote his first novel. I won't spoil the story here, but it begins in the least likely way imaginable, with an American travel agents' trip to Northern Ireland. Bernard's story contains coincidences and strokes of fate (I won't say luck, because Bernard clearly grasped the opportunities fate threw at him) so amazing that if you read them in a book you would dismiss them as utterly implausible - yet in Bernard's case they actually happened. The story of how he met his agent is pretty amazing too, and reveals the importance to a writer of being persistent!
You can either wait for Bernard's interview to be broadcast on the station's normal rotation, download it as a podcast, or (probably the easiest option) stream it from the Podcasts page. And if you'd like to find out more about Bernard, check out his web page at www.bernardcornwell.net - not, as you'll hear explained in the interview, .com!
Nick at 9:03 AM 
2 Comments:
nice blog
I'll have to check out that interview. Cornwell is my favorite among historical fiction authors and has been an influence on my own writing.
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