Product Description

An extraordinary and dramatic depiction of the legendary battle of Agincourt from the number one historical novelist Agincourt, fought on October 25th 1415, on St Crispin's Day, is one of the best known battles, in part through the brilliant depiction of it in Shakespeare's Henry V, in part because it was a brilliant and unexpected English victory and in part because it was the first battle won by the use of the longbow - a weapon developed by the English which enabled them to dominate the European battlefields for the rest of the century. Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt is a vivid, breathtaking and meticulously well researched account of this momentous battle and its aftermath. From the varying viewpoints of nobles, peasants, archers, and horsemen, Azincourt skilfully brings to life the hours of relentless fighting, the desperation of an army crippled by disease and the exceptional bravery of the English soldiers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10659 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-01
• Released on: 2008-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 453 pages

Review
"With a combination of painstaking historical research - how to make the most effective fire-arrow; how best to blind a man in battle; how to teach a child to prime a crossbow - and writing of fierce and urgent vividity, Bernard Cornwell has brought this most crucial and bloody of Europe's fifteenth century battles into the sharpest focus.
The non-stop excitement had me utterly captivated: I read the book in three hours flat, relishing every single second." --Simon Wichester

Review
'His best book yet. No one understands the experience of the common soldier better than Bernard Cornwell and in this gripping account of the Agincourt campaign, seen through the eyes of a simple archer, he tears away the gloss of legend to reveal the raw truth of medieval warfare in all its shocking brutality, filth and gore.'

Review
Bernard Cornwell is a literary miracle. Year after year, hail, rain, snow, war and political upheavals fail to prevent him from producing the most entertaining and readable historical novels of his generation'

Customer Reviews

Adventure history at its best
It probably comes as no suprise to anyone who saw Bernard Cornwell's glowing comments on the front of Juliet Barker's excellent history book 'Agincourt', that Cornwell turned his attention Henry V's famous, almost miraculous, victory over the French. The problem is how to make such an extraordinarily well known story - thanks to Shakespeare and numerous histories - seem fresh and exciting. Thankfully, we are in the hands of a master at this sort of thing.

His story of Nick Hook, an English longbowman, does more than simply tick the expected boxes. It successfully puts the victory at Agincourt into perspective both politically and socially. It does so by bringing us firmly into the lives of the people. These people realised as properly medieval men and women. Cornwell scores over so many of his competitors by convincing us that these are not simply modern men in fancy dress. Faith in Christianity, for example, and the battle between the heretical Lollard beliefs, common in England at the time, and the Church are woven into the fabric of the story. It will come as no suprise that the battle scenes are strongly and convincingly portrayed.

I always hesitate before giving a five star review, but this is certainly worth it.

Fabulous
I've been a fan of Cornwell's for some years now and have read everything he's done, in the past I have found his one off story's lack the sheer brilliance of his books that are part of a series. Azincourt however is, in my opinion, the best novel Cornwell has as yet produced, it's simply awsome. There are some aspects here that just shouldn't work (mainly the bits with God and the Saints) but Mr C pulls it off without leaving the reader thinking 'yeah right like that'd happen'.

I read this in 2 days flat, it's the very best book I have read in a long time, I implore you to buy this book, you will not be disappointed.

Great read - but owes a lot to Juliet Barker
I agree with the other reviewers that this is a great read but does at times feel a bit 'samey' (if you've read a lot of his other books.) Had I not read Juliet Barkers excellent book Agincourt, I'd have given the story 4 stars but this really feels like a dramatic version of that book. Cornwall to his credit does acknowledge this. In the Arthur chronicles (by far his best work in my opinion) I felt he brought some fresh ideas and insight but this feels a tad tired and derivative.

It didn't feel like too much original research went into this. I felt it left more questions about the battle than answers.

For example, I'd always bought the idea of the French men at arms of lumbering and clumsy weighed down by armour (as does Cornwall) yet recently saw a demo on TV of someone demo'ing some armour from the period. He was amazingly agile in it - leaping about and running. (Now in a muddy field and in a squashed mash of bodies it might not have made any difference - but...) I also came across a longbow group (who play with the things at weekends) who have suggested that firing in groups would have been more effective and that the particular arrows used might well have accelerated as they fell - giving a longer `galling' range than previously thought etc etc

Other books Cornwall has written have felt more `definitive'