This book focuses on the period from the seventh to eleventh centuries that witnessed the rise and fall of Mercia, the great Midland kingdom, and, later, the formation of England. Specifically, it explores the relationship between the bishops of Lichfield and the multiple communities of their diocese. Andrew Sargent tackles the challenge posed by the evidential 'hole' at the heart of Mercia by synthesizing different kinds of evidence - archaeological,...

A true story of two women speaking from self-imposed exile. Separated by seven centuries and an ocean, their stories intersect when Marie Laure makes a solo pilgrimage. She wants to understand why Julian of Norwich lived from age fifty in a cell, an anchorage, attached to a church, during the Black Death plague. Her own so-called anchorage is a river porch attached to a Florida townhouse. How had she ended up in quasi-exile? Trying to make sense of...

A definitive, ground-breaking history of the Anglo-Saxons by national bestselling author Marc Morris. Sixteen hundred years ago, Britain parted company with Europe. As the Roman legions withdrew, the economy that had supported them collapsed. A world that had been peaceful, prosperous and predictable became dangerously insecure. Rich and poor huddled together for protection in ancient hill-forts, unoccupied since the Iron Age. Learning and literacy...

The story takes place after the Roman legions leave Britain. There are several High Kings who are nominally in charge of newly forming tribal kingdoms. Vortigern, the High King, gives Kent to his Saxon allies. Other Saxons seize neighbouring Sussex. Aurelius Ambrosius defeats Vortigern and, as High King, tries to drive out the Saxons, but settles for a treaty. Owane Thantgwyn (bright teeth), nicknamed Arth (meaning The Bear), marries Ganumara and...

¿Quién habría podido imaginar que un problema conyugal podría dar lugar a la fascinante historia del Rey Arturo? Pero esto es lo que ocurrió. El rey de Britania Uther Pendragón quería casarse con la bella Igraine de Cornualles para que se convirtiera en su reina. Desgraciadamente, Igraine no estaba a favor de este matrimonio, por lo que Uther pidió ayuda a un mago llamado Merlín que resolvió el problema, y Uther e Igraine se casaron felizmente....

Some years ago a revolution took place in Early Medieval history in Scotland. The Pictish heartland of Fortriu, previously thought to be centred on Perthshire and the Tay found itself relocated through the forensic work of Alex Woolf to the shores of the Moray Firth. The implications for our understanding of this period and for the formation of Scotland are unprecedented and still being worked through. This is the first account of this northern heartland...

When the Second World War broke out, Warwick already had public air raid shelters planned, gas masks were being distributed, and there was even a power struggle when Warwickshire County Council took control of the Air Raid Wardens from the police. Although Warwick was not a prime target for the Luftwaffe, nearby Coventry was and minor blackout regulations were rigorously enforced. St Mary`s Church was believed to have been used as a marker for the...

Near the end of the eleventh century, Western Europe was in turmoil, beset by invasions from both north and south, by the breakdown of law and order, and by the laxity and ignorance of the clergy. Searching for a way out of the increasing anarchy, Pope Urban II launched an army of knights and peasants in 1095 to fight the Turks, who had seized the Holy Land. Michael Foss tells the stories of these men and women of the First Crusade, often in their...

Few could believe that within twenty-years of the war to end all wars being, won the world was once, again at war. Veterans of the Great War feared going through the same thing again and, even worse, many knew that this time their children would also be involved in the fighting. What had all the sacrifice been, about? Cambridgeshire, the city of Cambridge and the University of Cambridge were, badly hit by the Great War with many lives lost, families...

An orphanage headmistress is snatched saving a child from a dragon, and the world believes her dead and eaten. For centuries, Gascony's top predators have treated humankind as easy prey. But, Isodore's misery has only begun. On a lonely ledge high in the Pyrénées, where even the famed dragon slayers won't go, she comes to terms with the nature of dragons, her fate in her captor's hands, and she won dark secret. A child survivor of dragon's wrath,...