Aelfred's Britain

A history of the peoples of Britain, in the century and a half between the first Viking raids and the expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954.

The story of Aelfred the Great, his war against the Vikings and the foundations of modern Britain. In AD 865 , a 'great host' of battle-hardened Norse warriors landed on England's eastern coast , overwhelmed East Anglia with terrifying swiftness and laid the North to waste. Ghosting along estuaries and inshore waters, in 871 they penetrated deep into the southern kingdom of Wessex, ruled over by a new and untested king, alfred son of adelwulf. It seemed as though the End of Days was come. Max Adams tells the story of the heroic efforts of alfred , his successors and fellow-kings of Britain, to adapt and survive in the face of an apocalyptic threat; and in so doing, to lay the foundations of the nations of modern Britain in all their regional diversity.

“'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 .”

'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. '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. 'Essential reading for all those interested in late Anglo-Saxon Britain' Historical Novel Society. '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. '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. 'An evocative look at a period that continues to grab the popular imagination' History Revealed. '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.

Max Adams is the author of Admiral Collingwood, The Prometheans, the bestselling The King in the North and In the Land of Giants. He has lived and worked in the North-East of England since 1993.

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