Book description
A Richard Sharpe short story, featuring scenes of action and adventure
at Christmas.
'You'll like Irati,' Colonel Hogan said. 'It's a nothing place, Richard.
Hovels and misery, that's all it is and all it ever will be, but that's
where you're going for Christmas.'
Sharpe was sent to Irati because maybe the French were going there. The
garrison planned to march at Christmas in the hope that their enemies
would be too bloated with beef and wine to fight, but Hogan had got wind
of their plans and was now setting his snares on the only two routes
that the escaping French could use. One, the eastern road, was by far
the easier route, for it entered France through a low pass, and Hogan
guessed it was that route that the French would choose. But there was a
second road, a tight, hard, steep road, and that had to be blocked as
well and so the Prince of Wales's Own Volunteers, Sharpe's regiment,
would climb into the hills and spend their Christmas at a place of
hovels and misery called Irati.
Soldier, hero, rogue - Sharpe is the man you always want on your side.
Born in poverty, he joined the army to escape jail and climbed the ranks
by sheer brutal courage. He knows no other family than the regiment of
the 95th Rifles whose green jacket he proudly wears. 'Sharpe and his
creator are national treasures.' Sunday Telegraph
'Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain,
snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the
most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation.'
Daily Mail
'Cornwell's narration is quite masterly and supremely well-researched.' Observer
'The best battle scenes of any writer I've ever read, past or present.
Cornwell really makes history come alive.' George R. R. Martin Bernard
Cornwell was born in London, raised in Essex, and now lives mainly in
the USA with his wife. In addition to the hugely successful Sharpe
novels, Bernard Cornwell is the author of the Starbuck Chronicles, the
Warlord trilogy, the Grail Quest series, the Alfred series and
standalone battle books Azincourt and The Fort.
