Agincourt - by Bernard Cornwell (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

New York Times Bestseller

Bernard Cornwell, the New York Times bestselling "reigning king of historical fiction" (USA Today), tackles his most thrilling, rich, and enthralling subject yet--the heroic tale of Agincourt. The epic battle immortalized by William Shakespeare in his classic Henry V is the background for this breathtaking tale of heroism, love, devotion, and duty from the legendary author of the Richard Sharpe novels and the Saxon Tales. This extraordinary adventure will captivate from page one, proving once again and most powerfully, as author Lee Child attests, that "nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell."

From the Back Cover

"The greatest writer of historical adventures today" (Washington Post) tackles his richest, most thrilling subject yet: the heroic tale of Agincourt.

One of the most dramatic victories in British history, the battle of Agincourt--immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry V--pitted undermanned and overwhelmed English forces against a French army determined to keep their crown out of Henry's hands. Here Bernard Cornwell resurrects the legend of the battle and the "band of brothers" who fought on that fateful October day in 1415. An epic of redemption, Agincourt follows a commoner, a king, and a nation's entire army on an improbable mission to test the will of God and reclaim what is rightfully theirs--an exhilarating story of survival and slaughter that is, at once, a brilliant work of history and a triumph of imagination.

Review Quotes

"Nobody in the world does this stuff better than Cornwell - action set six hundred years ago is as 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

"Like all good historical fiction...the political background and historical incidents in the novel play out through the perspective of the main character.... The final battle...is carried out in such painstaking detail that you can feel the liquid--you should hope it's only sweat--trickling down the inside of your armor." - Diana Gabaldon, Washington Post

"Gripping. . . . Bernard Cornwell leads us into this world with the hypnotic skill of an old seer seated about an ancient campfire. . . . Mr. Cornwell paints a vivid, harrowing portrait of the ordeal of medieval warfare." - Ronald F. Maxwell, The Wall Street Journal

"A masterful tale of that medieval campaign--as terrifying as the razor-sharp arrow storms that the men-at-arms archers let fly." - W.E.B. Griffin & William E. Butterworth IV, authors of Black Ops

"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." - Juliet Barker, author of Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England

"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. Agincourt had me utterly captivated: I relished every single second of it." - Simon Winchester, author of The Man Who Loved China

"A brutal and visceral tour through the medieval world, where life is balanced on the point of an arrow, and where war is fought with every bit of sinew in one's body. A brilliant and stunning epic of ordinary men facing insurmountable odds. It left me breathless." - James Rollins, author of The Last Oracle

"A compelling novel of the events leading to, and culminating in, one of the touchstone battles of Medieval Europe. Bernard Cornwell has a positive gift for describing the brutality, the grit, the simple manual labor, and the absolute awfulness of battle. This is a really good book." - John Sandford, author of Phantom Prey

"Readers who haven't discovered Bernard Cornwell don't know what they are missing: his books are page-turners that both educate and entertain. He may well be the best historical novelist writing today--and Agincourt may well be his best novel yet." - Vince Flynn, author of Extreme Measures