Mr. Cornwell:

I am writing to you, like most people, to tell you I love your books.  I love them so much; I read them constantly and over and over again, and you have the wildest ideas compacted into the best times in history coupled with bright, intelligent, individual characters and excellent writing.

Now that the part that you’ve seen two million times is over, I have to say Agincourt is my favorite of all of them.  I first read the Shakespeare version, then was looking out for anything King Henry the Fifth, archers, or Agincourt when your book caught my eye.  I took it down off the shelf, read it in about a day, then read it again, because its greatness is all due to the amazing author that is you.

I was re-reading it yesterday, a Sunday, and researching little facts I found interesting.  For example, I watched a short video on King Henry’s scar that you highlight.  I wasn’t sure whether you had made it up (what was I THINKING) to make the story richer, or whether he actually had a scar from a bodkin arrowhead.  I looked it up and found this, which was incredibly interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Nef1siUus

I also read the notes at the end, and was hooked (Hook – bad pun, very sorry) on the fact that all the characters besides Thomas Perrill were actual real people that fought in Agincourt.  I did some research on this as well and found this website: http://www.medievalsoldier.org/search_musterdb.php

If you search a name, rank, surname, time in history, etc, it will pull of a list of people, their year, their rank, their battle, their position in battle, etc., and I researched Nicholas Hook, who was an archer in 1415 under the captain of Sir John Grey de Ruthin.

I’m trying to find the books by Anne Curry and the other authors you mention to read, because this book started me on a wild adventure of The Hundred Year’s War research.

Before your book, my grasping of Agincourt and the events before and after were a bit cloudy, because, you know, Shakespeare (I did really love the Into the Breach Speech and the St. Crispin’s day Speech though).  And then I read your book and the events at Agincourt and leading up to it were put into dazzling clarity.

I just wanted to say, thank you for also writing your other books (I LOVE the Saxon Tales/ Last Kingdom series and the Sharpe books), because I love history, historical fiction, and great writing in one.

Thanks so much for your time if you actually did rad this email,

Sophie Quick