What kick-started the writing of Sharpe's Eagle, the very first Sharpe book?
I was working for the BBC at the time, and was actually working on some current affairs programmes with a young Gavin Esler. The shoot involved a number of American travel agents visiting the UK, and as soon as I set eyes on one of them - a ravishing blonde - I turned to Gavin and said "I'm going to marry that woman one day!"

Rather inconveniently she was actually married with kids at the time, but we struck up a friendship anyway and were able to become romantically involved after she was divorced. However, she was unable to move to the UK because of her children, so I agreed to go over to the States. The trouble was getting a work permit, but you don't need one to write novels. So I said, "Don't worry, I'll write a novel!"

Was this the first time you'd actually thought of writing a book?
No, I'd long toyed with the idea of writing one about the Napoleonic Wars. As a child I'd read the Hornblower series, and by my late teens I'd become an anorak on the subject of the Napoleonic Wars. It had actually occurred to me very early on that there was no series about the army during that period. It was always the navy, as with Hornblower. So basically, the reason I wrote Sharpe was to redress this balance - to write the kind of novel that I myself had always wanted to read.

How did you go from wannabe-writer to bestselling novelist?
I sent the first Sharpe manuscript to the only publisher I knew in London - he wrote back saying nobody was interested in reading about the army! So I sent it to another publisher, who made me a very modest offer - the kind of money you couldn't possibly live on.

At around that time I attended some cocktail party in New York, and while there I bumped into an eloquent gentleman who said he was a literary agent. I immediately said I was a writer, at which point he tried to escape, no doubt used to budding novelists trying to sell themselves to him. But I persisted and told him I'd been given an offer of £3,000 by a publisher for world rights - to which he replied "Then it must be an awful novel!"

Luckily he agreed to actually take a look at the manuscript, and was won over by it. A few weeks later I had a seven-book contract and a writing career.

You were actually adopted as a baby - did you ever know your biological parents?
I met my parents for the first time about five or so years ago, but before this reunion I'd known very little about them. I was the product of a World War Two romance between a Canadian pilot and an English woman and, as they weren't married and he wanted nothing to do with me, she was forced to give me up as soon as I was born.

It wasn't all that uncommon, as there were a lot of spare babies around at that time. And adoption regulations weren't anywhere near as strict in those days - you could just hand over your child in a private arrangement with a couple, without bothering to let anyone else know.

You were taken in by a rather unusual household. Tell us more about that.
My adoptive parents came to assess my suitability, and the first question they asked my mother was "The father's not French is he? Because if he's French we don't want him!"

Unfortunately for me, my father was not French, so I was taken in by this couple who were members of the now-obscure Peculiar People church. Their name comes from an alternative translation of "Chosen People" from the book of Deuteronomy, and they're basically a very puritanical bunch, preaching hellfire and damnation and eschewing medical care in favour of prayer. I grew up in this rigidly religious environment, but by my teenage years I knew I had to get out of there.

You studied history at university. What was your career ambition at that time?
Well after graduating I became a school teacher, which wasn't really very sensible because I didn't like children very much! I didn't enjoy the job at all, although I've had the utmost respect for teachers ever since, having been there myself.

Everything changed when I got word that the BBC was looking to employ researchers for the current affairs show Nationwide - I heard about the opportunity from a friend in the pub, in fact. I phoned up and was invited in for an interview, but clearly the vacancy had been filled by the time I got there because the big cheese was very flustered and evasive during the interview. Then, quite unexpectedly, he received a phone call from a colleague who told him they needed a director pronto. The interviewer turned to me and asked "Have you got any directing experience?" To which my immediate response was "Yes!" even though I'd basically never seen a camera in my life.

But you actually went ahead and directed the programme anyway?
Yep - I was immediately called out to wherever it was they were filming and assumed control. It was hugely enjoyable, which is probably why I managed to bluff it. It led to a long working relationship with Nationwide, and I was eventually promoted beyond my competence, working as Head of Current Affairs for Northern Ireland for example. In fact, it was while I was in Belfast that I found myself working with two brash young journalists called Jeremy Paxman and Gavin Esler. Lovely chaps, I wonder what's become of them now...

Is it true that you didn't initially approve of Sean Bean landing the part of Sharpe?
This is an utterly inexplicable and false story that's somehow been circulated among journalists. It really is completely untrue, as I've always thought Sean Bean was perfect casting.

Of course, Paul McGann was the first choice for the part and was replaced due to an injury. I never saw him in the role, so I've no way of knowing how he would have handled it. One funny thing is that in the publicity pictures for the first televised story you see Sean standing there with his jacket and shirt unbuttoned, baring his Bean chest and driving female fans wild. But the fact is, he had to have them unbuttoned because they had been designed for Paul McGann's much smaller physique!

How did the success of the series alter your approach to writing the books?
Although my ego was satisfied by the fact that the Sharpe books had been bestsellers before the TV series came about, I'm not such a fool as to think that Sean didn't bring me many, many more readers. So I don't mind saying I'm indebted to him, and when I think of Sharpe now, it's Sean who is in my mind rather than my original conception of Sharpe, who hails from southern England and has black hair. I did alter the character to fit the Sean incarnation, by giving him Sheffield connections, setting parts of Sharpe's Regiment in Sheffield, and no longer mentioning dark hair in my descriptions of the character. It's only fair, after all.

And finally, can we expect any more Sharpe adventures?
Well he's obviously still alive and kicking in my head, as I published the 21st Sharpe novel last year. It's called Sharpe's Fury, and is based around the real-life 1811 battle that led to a key victory against the French during the Napoleonic Wars. Although I covered Waterloo and the end of the Wars in my original run of books, I've gone back and inserted new adventures like Sharpe's Fury in between the prior stories. So it does give me enormous scope to expand on the Sharpe series as the urge comes. And if the readers enjoy it, why not?