When Bernard Cornwell was refused a Green Card to work in the States, he decided to earn a living by writing, a job that needed no permit from the US government. He had for some years been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars, and it seemed an ideal opportunity to leave the BBC and launch a new career as an author, and to be alongside Judy, whom he married in 1980. The first Richard Sharpe book, Sharpe's Rifles, was published in 1981 by Collins (now HarperCollins), and since then there have been 20 Sharpe books to date (June 2005), along with a series of 14 TV Movies created in the 1990s by Central TV (now Carlton TV). But the story is not yet over - as the author says, "Sharpe and Harper will march again."