If any man can do the impossible it’s Richard Sharpe. And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Major Sharpe is asked to do when he’s dispatched on an undercover mission behind enemy lines, deep in the Spanish countryside. For a remote village is about to become the centre of a battle for the future […]
Wellington’s biggest Peninsular War secret
Tom Williams writes about the Lines of Torres Vedras in Portugal, Wellington’s biggest secret (in terms of size, anyway) during the Peninsular War against Napoleon. Today (7 April) sees the publication of the latest of my stories about Napoleonic-era spy, James Burke. Burke and the Lines of Torres Vedras is set in Portugal in 1810. […]
Burke in the Peninsula by Tom Williams
Things getting a bit messy in Spain. Lots of irregulars. Civilians joining in the fighting. That sort of thing. Wellesley needs all the help he can get. They need a man who can pass for a Spaniard. Someone who can make himself useful with the irregulars. Someone who is prepared to fight dirty if it […]
When my Spanish research trip went astray
Even when a trip to research your book goes ridiculously wrong, it’s still worth taking. Tom Williams, author of the Burke series of adventures set in the early 19th century, looks back at one such trip – to Talavera, site of an important Peninsular War battle in 1809 – in the days when travelling for […]




