FICTION

5. "Agincourt" by Bernard Cornwell (Charlie Hall)
If you want to learn something about land warfare in an easy relaxed manner, Cornwell's your guy. He combines history with fictional characters to dish up a tasty stew that leaves one both entertained and educated. This story of an undermanned English force pitted against a French army determined to keep their crown out of Henry V's hands describes "the brutality, the grit, the simple manual labor and the absolute awfulness of battle" says John Sandford. Cornwell resurrects the legend of the Band of Brothers and the battle fought on Saint Crispin's Day in 1415. See also his historical fiction series on the Napoleonic Wars as seen through the eyes of Richard Sharpe, a fictional rifleman who saved Wellington's life in India and thereafter rose through the ranks to be involved in every important event of the entire Peninsula Campaign plus more.

Published in 2009