The Recollections of Rifleman Harris

The Harris Project is proud to announce the forthcoming release of this audio book, which has been abridged from an 1848 first edition of this famous historical memoir of a Napoleonic War Rifleman, from the 95th Rifles. This one CD production by Explore Multimedia is read by Jason Salkey, who played Chosen Man Harris in the Sharpe films and provides a brilliant complement to his Harris diaries DVD series. Sound FX are provided by The 95th Rifles Re-enactment Society. A musical score by Adam Wakeman adds to this excellent production. Take the disc out of your CD Player, then put it in your computer to also enjoy a PC & MAC compatible Multimedia Section including : Video Interview with Jason Salkey Read the entire 1st edition of 'Recollections' Video showing the artwork creation All CDs ordered through Jason will get a signed photo. AUDIO BOOK = £15.00 Outside the UK contact me for price.

Apart from excellent tutelage received in Chosen Man School, nothing gave me a better insight as to what faced a foot soldier of the 95th in the Peninsula, than this fine book.

Naturally upon landing the role of a soldier in some barely known conflict from the mists of time, I searched for an edition of 'Recollections'. After much perusal, a battered second hand copy was unearthed at Foyles book shop in London's Charing Cross road. Thus beginning my journey in to warfare a la 1809 and all the scary, naked savagery it had to offer.

Of course, I had heard of the battle of Waterloo, but knew nothing of the events leading up to that decisive encounter between Napoleon and Wellington. Triumphs like Badajoz, Talavera and Salamanca, mutual experiences for both the real and fictional Harris, but less celebrated by the world at large. I think through Sharpe, Bernard Cornwell has helped to rectify this and reading Harris' recollections gave my version of the 95th rifleman a good grounding in reality.

Death, starvation, injury, disease, ineffectual doctors, and incompetent over lings waited around every corner in all the campaigns Harris graced. Descriptions of fellow rifleman being dispatched with musket balls inches from Harris' gaze, his account of the disastrous retreat from Corunna and never knowing whether your next meal would materialise from were reality to Harris and made a sobering read to say the least.

Experiences not entirely relevant to a twentieth century soldier, an era I'd at first assumed I could draw upon for my portrayal of Harris; that was until I'd read 'Recollections'. And so commenced the eye opening realisation that a peninsula soldier's life was nothing like the glossy 'silver screen' soldier image I had in mind. Therefore I'm indebted to the Dorset Harris for providing this indispensible guide.

Of course, my Harris was fictional, but the original and I have some common quirks of happenstance. He ended up as a cobbler in Soho, my audition for the part of Harris was in an office above a newsagent in Soho. He experienced severe hardship in his campaigns as a soldier, my three Crimean Campaigns on Sharpe were far from a picnic {see my video diaries}. And lastly, {admittedly Harris was my cue} I set about to document my experiences on Sharpe with a written, photographic and video diary. Putting on record the extraordinary story behind the war to bring Sharpe to the screen and recalling my part in an amazing series of events.

This is what the son of a Dorset Shephard, Ben Harris did with his unique and vivid description of life as a common soldier during the Peninsular. It is a great shame he died penniless and insane, reportedly in the workhouse (a salutary warning for me}, but he has left behind an account of the suffering and adversity of war; a lesson that all future generation should take heed of. I wonder now, some 16 years after I first searched for 'Harris', at the start of my Sharpe journey, if it's as hard to find a copy of 'The Recollections of Rifleman Harris', I doubt it!

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