Wes Phillips

Jon Carroll reports on his summer reading—Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England,—and proves yet again that he can turn out better stuff daily than most of us can hope for in a lifetime.

Money quote: "So the English army laid siege to Harfleur, and laying siege is a dirty business, and a lot more soldiers died of dysentery than died in battle. There was terrible sanitation back then, plus a notable failure to understand the germ theory of disease. Then the remains of the army decided to march to Calais, and, what with one thing and another, the French army didn't catch up with them until Agincourt."