Sharpe's Tiger

This prequel to the Sharpe series covers the eponymous hero’s adventures in India at the siege of Seringapatam before the Peninsular War. For me, Cornwell’s books are a perfect mix of history and breathless action. This one even features a cameo from Wellington. If only they’d let me read this in history at school, I might have stayed awake more often. Cornwell pays great attention to historical detail, and if he messes with it, he does it deliberately. There are sumptuous palaces, epic battle scenes, rockets exploding, and people getting eaten by tigers. There’s also the deliciously nasty Sergeant Obadiah… show more.

Sharpe’s Tiger is the first of a big series of books that follow Richard Sharpe, a private in the British army….1798. Every book in the series is a total treat…a warning: once you get hooked on Sharpe, you probably won’t stop until you’ve devoured the entire series.

Richard Sharpe, abandoned son of a London prostitute, grows up poor, hard, and double tough. His adventures take him all over the world, always fighting some enemy of the big British Empire. Bernard Cornwell is a fine writer, and he’s written some other historical novels as well, set in earlier times. All of… show more.

Richard Sharpe is one of the great characters of historical fiction, paralleling the true career of Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) from India all the way to Waterloo. The first book in the series introduces us to Private Sharpe fighting in India in 1799. Sharpe is relieved from the tyranny of Sergeant Hakeswill and sent on a secret mission into the fortress of the Tipoo Sultan to rescue an intelligence officer in prison.

With Lieutenant Lawford he pretends to be a British deserter and joins the Sultan’s forces in the heavily fortified Seringapatam. A gripping story with wonderful… show more.