He relocated to the United States in 1980 after marrying an American. He then joined Thames Television as editor of Thames News.

He then joined BBC's Nationwide and was promoted to become head of current affairs at BBC Northern Ireland. He attempted to enlist in the British armed services at least three times but was rejected on the grounds of myopia. After he left them, he changed his name to his birth mother's maiden name, Cornwell.Ĭornwell was sent away to Monkton Combe School, attended the University of London, and after graduating, worked as a teacher. He was adopted and brought up in Essex by the Wiggins family, who were members of the Peculiar People, a strict Protestant sect who banned frivolity of all kinds and even medicine. His father was a Canadian airman, and his mother, who was English, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. This is what it must have been like to fight at Agincourt.Ĭornwell was born in London in 1944. Bernard Cornwell has a great understanding of men at war and battlefields and this is his masterpiece. Seen from several points of view on the English side, but also from the French ranks, the scene is vivid, convincing and compelling. Henry stubbornly refuses to accept defeat and, in appalling weather, leads his shrunken force to what appears to be inevitable disaster.Īzincourt culminates in the battle. The army was superb, but sickness and the unexpected French defiance at Harfleur, reduce it to near-shambolic condition. What happened at the Siege of Soissons shocked all Europe, and propels Nick back to England where he is enrolled in the archer companyof the doughty Sir John Cornwaille, a leader of Henry V's army. He finds refuge across the Channel, part of an English mercenary force protecting the town of Soissons against the French. He seems born to trouble and, when his lord orders him to London as part of a force sent to quell an expected Lollard uprising, Nick's headstrong behaviour leads to him being proscribed an outlaw. Bernard Cornwell, who has long wanted to write this story, depicts the reality behind the myths. It has always been held to be the triumph of the longbow against the armoured knight, and of the common man against the feudal aristocrat, but those are history's myths. It was fought by two badly matched armies that met in atrocious conditions on St Crispin's Day 1415, and resulted in an extraordinary victory that was celebrated in England long before Shakespeare immortalised it in Henry V. Agincourt is one of the epic battles of history.

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