This entire series is a wonderful way to learn history or teach it to adolescents. I find today's generations seem to recall more when they learn through other people (pop songs, celebrity gossip, etc.), so what better way to teach history than through someone else's perspective? Yes, "authentic" diaries would be "better", but would the language really hold the modern student's attention? Did the diary writer know what WOULD be important in the context of history? Probably not.

Jenkin has been practicing at the archery butts for years and has built up his skills. He is the proud possessor of a bow left to him by his father and, when he learns that he is go to war for King Henry V of England, he is elated. Here is his chance to honour his dead father and prove himself. There is also an unspoken thought, a fear about the fact that he may not return from this campaign in France.
The Welsh archers, with Jenkin as part of the company, quickly discover that in war you can be perpetually cold, wet, and hungry and disease and death are constant companions. Glory and honour, being brave and having wonderful archery skills, matter very little under these conditions. Lives are beginning lost at a frightening rate. The English travel through the French countryside, the war a very random affair until they finally face the French army at Agincourt.
At Agincourt the English were greatly outnumbered, starved, sick, dressed in rags and armed with rusty weapons. They should have been well and truly beaten. It was the skill and courage of the English archers that “turned the tables” and helped Henry V win one of history’s greatest victories.
And character s like Jenkin were part of this remarkable victory. ( )