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The word Agincourt echoes still for us today. It was one of the greatest English victories ever. The few, the yeomen of England, triumphed over their adversaries.
It is a true story that Bernard Cornwell has long wanted to write. It is hard to imagine a better storyteller to bring such an amazing time to life. The characters are all based in fact and the heroes are the English longbowmen, the backbone of Henry V's army, his secret weapon. But the single, strongest character, is a champion of tournaments, and yet is imprisoned for marrying a forbidden woman.
He becomes a great warrior.
'Azincourt', the name of the place where the battle happened and its name in England for some centuries afterwards, is an outstanding and powerful novel. Full of detail of the countryside, of the torrential rain and mud, of the sickness among the soldiers and their fear of the overwhelming enemy facing them, the story depicts completely the courage, the stoicism, the sheer bloody-mindedness of the fighting man.
"... Hollywood-ready construction undercuts the you are there feeling of Cornwell's otherwise vivid recreation of Henry V's greatest military triumph." - Publishers Weekly.
"The usual splendid stuff from the master of historical battle. There's a bit of deus ex machina, but it's tolerable. " - Kirkus Reviews.
"Most impressive, Cornwell has produced a military adventure with a subtle but powerful antiwar tone, filled with dramatic battle scenes that unsparingly convey the horrors and futility of the Agincourt campaign. Recommended for all libraries." - Library Journal.
"Nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell - action set six hundred years ago is a fresh and vital as six days ago, with rough, tough men at war, proving once again that nothing changes - least of all great storytelling." - Lee Child.
This information about Agincourt was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 – a 'warbaby' – whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force.
He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years.
He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job ...
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