Clearly I’m a big fan of all your books, please keep writing and making billions! (Joke I think!) I am however particularly fond of those books where the longbow and the archer are the central characters. I am or was an archer and agree that as you suggest,very much a leveling weapon and gladdens my socialist heart ( socialist with a small s) I would apologize in advance however, if someone has already raised the following issue with you. I would take option with the term ‘punched through,’ when describing how an arrow penetrates through plate armour. Many years ago I was privileged to see a grainy black and white high speed film of a bodkin tipped arrow piercing steel plate. The plate was mild steel and not I suspect as hard as breastplate would have been but then again the bow was probably less than half the draw of a warbow. On impact the shaft bent into curve that had a diameter of about half its relaxed length. (This being why arrows that are too stiff shatter, as well as being inaccurate because they don’t bend around the belly of the bow on loose )The arrow was clearly revolving at full speed, 3000 rpm perhaps more, and it could clearly be seen to drill it way through the plate. Therefore the sequence of event would have been, arrow at max RPM hits plate armour, dimpling the metal in and locating and steadying the arrow point (in the same way the dimple made by a centre punch holds a modern drill steady so that the drill ti[p doesn’t skid or wander)so that as the arrow continues to spin the arrow bends but still rotates and the edges of the bodkin cuts through the steel. Early drill bits had a great similarity with bodkin arrow tips. There are many more factors than covered, weight, stiffness of shaft etc,but I hope I have said enough to show why I believe you to be correct in your assumption of the warbow’s capability. Forgive the Nerdy tone of the e mail but I have listened to so called experts in medeival weaponry on the TV,from the slash and bash school, carrying out standard drop test with bodkins on simulated armour and because they didn’t punch through, then state that the power of the warbow was a myth. Before closing, I fully understand that it would sound weird to say Nick Hook’s arrow drilled the knights breastplate but that is what I believe actually happened at Azincourt. Once again though, keep writing, I am it would appear a Nerd among fans but definitely a fan! Regards, Jim Parsons