Sharpe's Skirmish by Bernard Cornwell (BOTH Press Dyslexia Friendly Campaign)

Sharpe's Skirmish by Bernard Cornwell.

Dyslexia friendly fiction for adults by BOTH Press. For publication details see below.

From the cover:

It is the summer of 1812 and Richard Sharpe, newly recovered from the wound he received in the fighting at Salamanca, is given an easy duty; to guard a Commissary Officer posted to an obscure Spanish fort where there are some captured French muskets to repair.

But unknown to the British, the French are planning a lightning raid across the River Tormes, and they reckon the obscure Spanish fort, which guards an ancient bridge across the river, will be lightly guarded. Sharpe is in for a fight.

 

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I love a Richard Sharpe story. I have consumed the whole series of full novels and the short stories (except the very latest, long awaited reboot Sharpe's Assassin, which is still on my huge tbr pile), and adored them all.

When I heard of the brilliant BOTH Press Kickstarter campaign to publish more exciting fiction in a dyslexia-friendly format for adults, I was overjoyed! And the fact that one of these is a short story from the Sharpe canon, Sharpe's Skirmish, gives me a great opportunity to sing the praises of the genius historical fiction writer Bernard Cornwell, as well as promote a truly worthy campaign.

This story fits nicely into the main part of the series of novels that details the adventures of fictional rifleman Richard Sharpe in the Napoleonic Wars, and it features some very familiar faces for fans of the books. The story itself is short and sweet, which makes it perfect for a quick read, but it still contains the essence of what makes the Sharpe books so very enjoyable: the pace, the characters, the slow-burn tension, the humour, the military tactics, and the thrill of a good battle - or what Sharpe refers to as a just a skirmish, in this case.

I'm not sure how well this works as a stand-alone, as I am obviously familiar with the books, but I do think is gives a good introduction to what the series is about, and the engaging writing style of Bernard Cornwell - now in a format specifically designed to make this accessible for adult readers with dyslexia. Great care has been taken of the font, spacing, and even the background colour of the page. I may not be dyslexic myself, but as a former school librarian, I know how much these features make a huge difference to dyslexic readers, and it is great to see gripping stories given this treatment. Anything that can be done to promote reading for pleasure to as wide an audience as possible is a great move.

Thank you to BOTH Press for sending me an ebook copy of the proposed dyslexia friendly format of this book, and to Love Books Tours for inviting me to to take part in this blog tour.

About the author:

Bernard Cornwell OBE is a global bestselling historical fiction author of more than 50 novels. His Napoleonic Wars series following Richard Sharpe, was made into much-loved TV series starring Sean Bean. More recently his Last Kingdom series, set in King Alfred’s Anglo Saxon kingdom, have been adapted by the BBC.

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About the campaign:

Following their successful "Open Dyslexia" Kickstarter in 2021, which led to publishing eight dyslexic friendly fiction titles, BOTH Press is launching on June 7th 2022, their second Kickstarter "Open Dyslexia: the sequel" with more high-profile authors than ever before, lasting 30 days and finishing on the July 4th 2022.

The Kickstarter aims to publish eight more titles of high-quality fiction from bestselling authors: including household names such as Bernard Cornwell and Peter James.

The line-up is full of many front-list authors such as Gareth Powell, J.M Alvey (aka Juliet Mckenna), Scott Oden, Snorri Krisjanason, and James Bennett. Peter James will also be doing an introduction for the 2022 collection.

There are very few initiatives for reading for pleasure for adults. The eight titles BOTH Press has already published are the only readily available dyslexic friendly fiction for adults in the UK and can be found in libraries and any bookshop. The scale of accessibility is not nearly enough, as around 10% of the UK population deal with some form of dyslexia.

Despite Jay Blades's (the Presenter of ‘Repair Shop’) unique telling of his own learning to read on the documentary ‘Learning To Read At 51’, which the BBC recently aired. There are still few or no resources for adult dyslexia. A glance at Adult dyslexics charity websites and reading charity websites indicates there are few resources on reading fiction for pleasure for adults with dyslexia.

The dyslexic blogger Suzy Taylor who writes for Dyslexia Scotland, said:

"It is frustrating that we now have children's books in dyslexic friendly formats. As adults we apparently do not require books in the same form."

There needs to be a choice for people to read for pleasure, where there are books designed to be friendly to them and are not dumbed down, are high quality and enjoyable fiction, which people can chat and socialise about with friends and family.

Darren Clarke, the director of Succeed with Dyslexia, said:

"This books shop is doing incredible things and helping people to fall in love with reading again" [and] "I love the fact and the thought that has gone through on these [titles] with the spacing, the font, with the colour of the paper and the way that the book just flows."

BOTH Press has had many heart-warming responses of how the books have impacted their lives.

Dr Alistair Sims said:

"Many individuals who have told us their stories do not want to be mentioned due to fear of stigma about their struggle to read. For example a man in his 50s is Scotland had not read a book since he was a child. His partner found us and bought him one of our titles. He read it. Then called us up to order another. He was so happy to actually read. In fact the partner wrote us a letter explaining how much of difference it is making and then ordered the four more for a Christmas present."

BOTH aim to raise £16,000 to publish eight titles. Though looking to the future, they will need more than £20,000 a year to keep publishing eight titles regularly. All funds go toward the book production/ life cycle to make them readily available. The bookshop Books on the Hill and their manager Alistair Sims, who created BOTH Press, receives no profits from the project.

Find out more HERE.

The Kickstarter link can also be found HERE