Commentary

There’s nothing like writing the press release before you’ve made the work! I’m sure you may have done it – it’s often a logistical thing, not anyone’s fault, but it always feels like an absurd creative writing exercise. For my end-of-residency Walking Tour event I have promised, among other things, “an audio piece designed to be listened to on your phone while en route”. I keep telling people that part of that will include a “commentary”, some kind of narration, a VoiceOver perhaps, something that explains what’s going on, or explains what has been going on, something that reassures everyone that it’ll make sense. To be honest, I don’t have it. I don’t think I’m going to have it. I even dropped my phone in a running body of water while trying to come up with it (no time to explain) – as if the phone itself was also trying to escape the burden of this promise that I couldn’t keep.

While I was meant to be writing this commentary yesterday I instead spent my time chasing a little narrative detail that peaked my interest. In 1984 they (actually one person – Christopher Phillpotts) found the French battle plan for Agincourt in the British Library collections. It was obviously written in the week or two preceding the actual engagement and presumably captured at some point by the English. I find this fascinating – plotting where everyone was meant to be, diagramming it. If you go through it there’s about eleven names mentioned – eleven – a full starting line up. So I went through my book of translated sources* and working off four – Phillpotts’ plus three fifteenth-century chronicles – I mapped out where the main players were meant to be according to the pre-planning and where they actually seem to have ended up. Then I rang Lawrence (on my wife’s phone with my sim card – again no time to explain): Is there someone at Derry City that would be up for chatting with me for ten or fifteen minutes about player positions and tactics? Nothing is an issue for Lawrence, even if I’m coming to him late in the day with a random request. I’ll get that sorted for you for next week. 

So I’m no further along with my commentary however I have a potential discussion of the French battle plan in relation to tactics on a football pitch…I think it’s all coming together ok. 

Peter

*A. Curry, The Battle of Agincourt. Sources and Interpretations (Woodbridge, 2000)

Image: Transactions between England and France, 1413-1460: Cotton Caligula D. V, f.43v. From the British Library archive.