BERNARD Cornwell has admitted in the past he doesn’t do small talk. Indeed, pleasantries are short and sweet before we settle down to the business of discussing his 50th novel, 1356.

The London-born writer is visiting the UK from his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he writes his gripping historical tales featuring epic battles, violent duels and a smattering of romance against real backdrops.

His most famous works are the 24 books in the iconic Sharpe series charting the life of swashbuckling soldier Richard Sharpe in the Napoleonic Wars, which was made into a TV series starring Sean Bean, but he has also written books about the American Civil War, Arthur’s Britain, the Hundred Years War, contemporary thrillers and standalone historical novels.

In the UK alone, 15 million copies of his books have been sold and his work has been translated into 20 languages.

Fans will not be disappointed with his latest offering, focusing on the Battle of Poitiers during the Hundred Years War.

It sees Edward, the Black Prince, lead a chevauchee (a destructive raid) through France, with a battle in which the English were outnumbered by the French by two to one and yet went on to win. The plot features Thomas of Hookton, the leader of a mercenary company of archers, and his quest to retrieve La Malice, a sword of mythical power guaranteeing victory to its owner.

Cornwell spins a great yarn set against a factual backdrop, featuring duels, battles and much bloodthirsty detail.

His 50th novel wasn’t a milestone, he says. He didn’t sit back and crack open the bubbly or light a cigar, because he’s already on to the next book, although he only writes one a year now.

Cornwell also says he doesn’t have a formula for writing, and never knows how a story will turn out. He just sits at his desk in his office, surrounded by stacks of books and historical artefacts, including Sharpe’s sword, and writes.

“Part of the joy of reading a book is to find out what happens, but for me part of the joy of writing a book is to find out what happens. I make it up as I go along, with a destination in mind.”

In the summer he takes a break from writing to tread the boards with a local theatre company. He’s been with them for seven years, after meeting the theatre director whom he says was probably beguiled by his English accent.

“It’s nice working in a company, as part of a team and talking to people.

Being a writer is very much a solitary vice. So I try to finish my book around April and start learning my lines in May.”

Cornwell, 68, was born of a wartime fling between a Canadian airman and a British woman who already had children and was waiting for her husband to come home. His mother dumped him in an orphanage, from which he was retrieved by a couple who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People, a cult of evangelical fundamentalists.

“My childhood wasn’t a very happy one,” he recalls. “There was a whole list of things that thou shalt not do, whether it was reading comics, cinema, television, classical music. The Peculiars believed they should be apart from the world.”

He studied theology at London University, to give himself enough intellectual ammunition to fight them, and became an atheist.

Years later, when Cornwell was in his fifties, he found his biological parents.

“It was a capricious decision. I happened to be in British Columbia and knew my father was living there and I found him through a newspaper.

“I can remember the first meeting with him in Victoria. We got on just fine. He looked exactly like me. Then I met my mother a couple of years later in England. They’ve both since passed away.

I’m glad I did it because you learn a lot about your ancestry.”

  • 1356 by Bernard Cornwell is published by HarperCollins, priced £18.99