BERNARD CORNWELL Azincourt ***

I've seen his 'Sharpe' on TV, but I'd never read any of Bernard Cornwell's books until I tried this one.

The history of the battle of Agincourt (or Azincourt if you're French) and what led up to it is quite interesting, and you get an insight into the life of an ordinary soldier. But the story that frames it all - that of Nick Hook, an English archer - might have been devised by a computer. We need conflict at home, we need a love story, we need a noble but cruel enemy, we need heroism. And they're all wedged in there.

We're meant to be horrified by all the blood and gore and Cornwell does his best, but there's a limit to the number of different ways you can describe someone getting their eyes gouged out or having their brain splattered all over the place.

Easy to read and mildly diverting, he said, damning it with faint praise.