novel Sharpe's Eagle. The Lines of Torres Vedras are better described in Sharpe's Escape. Adaptation A 1993 TV adaptation of the same name was produced by Central Independent Television for the ITV network in the UK starring Sean Bean and Daragh O'Malley although this bore little resemblance to the novel. Publication history 1981, UK, HarperCollins , 1 December 1981, Hardback 1982, USA, Viking Press , 1 January 1982, Hardback 1995, UK, HarperCollins , 1 December 1995, Paperback 2004, USA, Signet , 3 August 2004, Paperback This is Bernard Cornwell's second novel and according to the author the hardest to write. It was written as a warm-up for his "series of tales about the adventures of a British rifleman in the Napoleonic Wars". It was published in the same year, and just ten months after, the first novel. References 1981 British novels Gold Fiction set in 1810 William Collins, Sons books