Post Roman - I'm especially interested in the pre-unification kingdoms, christianisation, etc, I suppose - but also in eg, Athelstan, Edgar, about whom I know pretty much nothing! I'd settle for two books, pre- and post-unification
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Replying to @MathewJLyons
Lots of books come to mind, but the experts are
@DrLRoach &@caitlinrgreen - they’ll see you right2 replies 1 retweet 5 likes -
I like Nick Higham & Martin Ryan's The Anglo-Saxon World, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3eXew91YDiAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false … (which uses a couple of my maps iirc!), also Robin Fleming's Britain After Rome (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kFQ9YgEACAAJ …) :) I also have considerable fondness for https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Anglo_Saxons.html?id=-yGW7fkkAroC&redir_esc=y … tho' it's old!
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I was gonna say James Campbell! Classic textbook for me back in the day
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Yes, absolutely, same! It's long in the tooth, but still very fond of it!
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Just read old TLS review of Higham & Ryan. Reviewer *very* reluctantly concedes that it probably, on balance, ought to replace Campbell et al. Says latter better written & argued
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Yes, I think the feeling is that Higham and Ryan is an improvement, but not nearly what Campbell et. al. was in 1980 (or in other words, it may date swiftly); Fleming is excellent on social history and archaeology, but consciously eschews a political narrative.
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Replying to @DrLRoach @MathewJLyons and
Other books worth considering are Halsall's Worlds of Arthur (accessible, but early in focus), Kirby's Earliest English Kings (dense, but good on early politics) and Stafford's Unification and Conquest (best single narrative of the politics of the later period).
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Definitely agree on Kirby and Stafford, and Barbara Yorke is good for the 'heptarchy', no? (Though would you really recommend Halsall?! I love aspects of it, but other bits... it feels a bit John Morris as reviewed by James Campbell to me, if you know what I mean?)
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Halsall I like for his iconoclasm, but view it as an 'enjoyable and interesting read' rather than a 'standard accepted narrative'. Yorke is also very good - with the same caveat as Kirby on being quite academic.
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I think it's a wonderful stimulus to thought, with some great ideas (and nice to have an 'outsider' perspective!), but I v much hesitate to recommend to folks who are already well-grounded in the immediate post-Roman period in Britain, it's ongoing debates & sources etc...!
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Replying to @caitlinrgreen @DrLRoach and
*aren't already well-grounded etc, not are!
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Replying to @caitlinrgreen @DrLRoach and
From the lay perspective I have to say the Higham and Ryan is particularly readable without being condescending or trivial.
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Replying to @brixtandrew @caitlinrgreen and
That's really good to hear! Thank you.
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