'Powerful' The Economist'Fascinating, panoramic . . . Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy' Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves'Narrated with pace, clarity, authority and style, Roach's book is a bracing tour of the world that the Normans made their own' Thomas Williams, bestselling author of Viking Britain'A fresh retelling . . . written with enthusiasm an...

An imaginative reassessment of Æthelred "the Unready," one of medieval England’s most maligned kings and a major Anglo-Saxon figure The Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred "the Unready" (978–1016) has

An in-depth exploration of documentary forgery at the turn of the first millenniumForgery and Memory at the End of the First Millennium takes a fresh look at documentary forgery and historical memory in the Middle Ages. In the tenth and eleventh centuries, religious houses across Europe began falsifying texts to improve local documentary records on an unprecedented scale. As Levi Roach illustrates, the resulting wave of forgery signaled major shifts in soc...

This engaging study focuses on the role of assemblies in later Anglo-Saxon politics, challenging and nuancing existing models of the late Anglo-Saxon state. Its ten chapters investigate both traditional constitutional aspects of assemblies - who attended these events, where and when they met, and what business they conducted - and the symbolic and representational nature of these gatherings. Levi Roach takes into account important recent work on continental rulership, and argues that assem...

The first global history of the Normans, who - beyond the conquest of England - came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East.How did descendants of Viking marauders came to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East?It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to No...

A humorous deep-dive into the varied - and oft-gruesome - deaths of the King and Queens of England and Scotland.How the monarchs of England and Scotland met their deaths has been a wonderful mixture of violence, infections, overindulgence and occasional regicide. In Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries, and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens o...

Brought to you by Penguin.**A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021, AS CHOSEN BY THE TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, TELEGRAPH AND TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENTA ground-breaking portrait of the most turbulent century in English history**Among foreign observers, seventeenth-century England was known as 'Devil-Land': a diabolical country of fallen angels, torn apart by seditious rebellion, religious extremism and royal collapse. Clare Jackson's dazzling, origina...

Inspired by the lapidaries of the ancient world,this audiobook is a beautiful collection of true stories about sixty different stones that have influenced our shared historyThe earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures. Catherine the Great wore the wealth of Russia stitched...

'Brilliantly funny' SHAPARAK KHORSANDI'Immensely enjoyable' BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE'Every page contains delights' LINDSEY FITZHARRISWhy is Italy called Italy? How old is curry? How fast was the medieval Chinese post system? How do we know how people sounded in the past? Who invented maths?Responding to fifty genuine questions from the public, Greg Jenner takes you on an entertaining tour through history from the Stone Age to the Swinging Sixties, reveali...

A powerful history of the forgotten lives of black Georgian Britain.Georgian England had a large and distinctive black community. Yet all of them, prosperous citizens or newly freed slaves, ran the risk of kidnap and sale to plantations. Their dramatic, often moving story is told in this audiobook.The idea that Britain became a mixed-race country after 1945 is a common mistake. Even in Shakespeare's England, black people were numerous enough for Queen Eliza...

'BRILLIANTLY ARRANGED AND RICH WITH FRESH INSIGHTS, UNCOMMON WEALTH REMINDS US HOW THE FORGOTTEN STORIES OF EMPIRE AND DECOLONISATION CONTINUE TO IMPACT OUR DAILY LIVES IN BRITAIN - AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD - UP TO TODAY' AKALABritain didn't just put the empire back the way it had found it.In Uncommon Wealth, Kojo Koram traces the tale of how after the end of the British empire an interconnected group of well-heeled Britis...

'BRILLIANT' ANDREW MARR'HAD ME OPEN-MOUTHED WITH AMAZEMENT' ED BALLS'ESSENTIAL' JON SOPEL'A GRIPPINGLY WRITTEN, DETAILED BOOK THAT ANSWERS SO MANY QUESTIONS' ISABEL HARDMAN'SUPERB' EVAN DAVISThe explosive full story of the past dozen years of Tory rule, from coalition to self-destruction; f****ully updated to include the general election.