Aelfred's Britain

This engrossing history of the British people between the first Viking raids in 865 and the expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954 is notable for being a more nuanced portrait of that era... Lands other than Wessex come into fascinating new focus' * The Bookseller * An evocative look at a period that continues to grab the popular imagination * History Revealed * This is much more than a book about the Vikings versus King Alfred... [Adams'] great achievement is to cover events throughout the whole of Britain with some excursions into Ireland and Europe as well' * TLS * A beautifully crafted and impeccably compiled book, and one that is certainly a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the events and figures that moulded Britain during the reign of the Vikings * All About History * Essential reading for all those interested in late Anglo-Saxon Britain * Historical Novel Society * Adams very usefully drops from the macro-narratives to detailed examples of what all this meant to people at ground level, using the evidence of coins and charters and, especially, archaeology - much of which exposes the written chronicles and histories as propaganda... A great virtue of his book - in following the archaeologists and the geographers, the reconstructors and the genealogists, Adams never forgets to ask what it looked like to the people on the ground' * London Review of Books * Brilliantly combining history and archaeological research with an eye for the terrain [Aelfred's Britain is] a compelling read that is as knowledgeable on warfare in the Middle Ages as it is on civic life in Saxon London and Viking York * The Lady *