"Michael P. Reed" wrote in message
om...
"Brian Sharrock" wrote in message
...

Mike, a slight background ... although I enjoy the interchange
in this thread current circumstances surrounding my family
involving probate, hospitals, care faciliites etc. mean that I
can only read the newsgroup at five-or-six day intervals ...
after such a passage of time, others have commented on your
positions and the thread has moved on. Please forgive and
and permit me to restrict my -
interrupt -high priority
We interrupt the typing of this message to answer an incomming
call on the line the family uses to alert me to news of my father
in hospital 300 mile away - smn context - he was RN HO in WWII -
.....a bloody robot-marketing-droid-female 'Hi I'm Kim! Press #1
to find out about your holiday in Sunny Florida ..... see you in
Florida!
press #1!' sheesh!
/interrupt -high priority
interjection to aspects
others have skipped.
snip


Of course they then got to write the history and control the
curriculum in all the schools of their colonies and subsequent
possessions ....

A well worn myth. At best its true only for totalitarian regimes.
You have obviously not read much on the American Revolution, its
causes,

your _obviously_ is somewhat overstated, I've read IMHO
reasonably well and actually 'lived through' the 'Bicentennial
celebrations' in 1976 attending several re-enactments in the Carolinas,
visited many of the exhibitions staged during that year, visited the
Smithsonian - all running 'specials' in that year ... and distinctly
remember a long conversation on the Mall (DC) with a full-feathered
'Red Indian' hereinafter referred to as a Native American (NA);
a'standin' outside his dwelling place and bemusedly watching the
Ukranian-American Folk-Dancers (or was it the Hungarian-American
oompah band? - it's so hard to discern with the passage of years!)
Anyway! I addressed the son of the forest;- 'Hail chieftain of the five-
nations! What are you doing so far from the banks of the
Sussequahana (sp)?
'F****d if I know, palefaced Englishman!' sayeth he, 'We got really screwed
by this here lot' he pointed his fighting axe towards the Lincoln Memorial
and slowly swung his arm in a gesture encompassing the White House, the
Washington monument and the palace of congress'critters atop the Hill.
Amen to that, I responded.
We chatted away about places we both knew,
My next destination being upstate New York and he regaled me with
his tales of (RAF) Burtonwood where he'd served during WWII - second half,
after the interval.
'Is the 'Cat and Fiddle' still there? he asked .... I'm sure
you can picure the scene ... if memory serves me right, we couldn't
share a pipe of peace 'cos the Park Police had decalred the Mall a
no-smoking
zone ... 'for your pleasure and safety!'


and eventually produce screen plays such as "The Patriot".


Or Horatio Hornblower? The Sharpe series? Puh-lease, Mr Sharrock,

OK, I take your point but let's examine the two subjects you raised;-
'Horatio Hornblower' series is somewhat heroic rather than historic
.... but it's reasonably based on the record of the era. Many years ago
1978-ish,
I read a book of CS Forrester entitled something like 'How I came to write
the Hornblower series'. I'd borrowed the book from the library so it's not
on my shelves norin the loft.
IIRC, Forrester mentions the glaring 'gap' in the life story
of his hero; he never engages the rebelling colonists in North
America - apparently his publishers said to have included any
such novel in the canon would have killed his sales in USA ...
The Sharpe series ... I enjoy them all and avidly buy them as
they hit the bookshops. The average Sharpe novel has
the hero with a full purse which he loses, then engages the enemy
in a fire-fight which he loses, but wins a woman then engages the
enemy in a bigger fire-fight which he wins, regains a purse but
loses the woman. Repeat with bigger fire-fights in a credible
sequence.
Bernard Cornwell never invents a 'Patriot -style'
incident.
All of the incidents that Sharpe participates in are stated
to have occurred -with the proviso that Sharpe, Harper, et al
are non-historic.
'Sharpe's Havoc' fr'instance is a novel whose narrative finishes
on page 374 -there then follows five and a half
pages of 'Historical Notes' ... 'Sharpe is once again guilty of stealing
another man's thunder ... the tale of ... is true ... The British lost
seventy-seven men ... in the fight at ... Major Dulong of the 31st Leger
....
,,, is true ... the fictional village of .... [names of fire-fights
ommitted
in case folks haven't read the novel yet]
So Sharpe and Harper will march again"

I imagine that a book about 'The Patriot' would finish on Page 6,
then have three-hundred -and seventy pages of Historic Corrections"

Hornblower and Sharpe (novels) are poles apart from the idiocy
and pure propagandising of 'The Patriot'.

Regards
--

Brian Sharrock