Britain After Rome

Oct 24, 2024 11:14 AM

Author:Robin Fleming

Britain After Rome

The enormous hoard of beautiful gold military objects found in a field in Staffordshire has focused huge attention on the mysterious world of 7th and 8th century Britain. Clearly the product of a sophisticated, wealthy, highly militarized society, the objects beg innumerable questions about how we are to understand the people who once walked across the same landscape we inhabit, who are our ancestors and yet left such a slight record of their presence.

Britain after Romebrings together a wealth of research and imaginative engagement to bring us as close as we can hope to get to the tumultuous centuries between the departure of the Roman legions and the arrival of Norman invaders nearly seven centuries later. As towns fell into total decay, Christianity disappeared and wave upon wave of invaders swept across the island, it can be too easily assumed that life in Britain became intolerable - and yet this is the world in which modern languages and political arrangements were forged, a number of fascinating cultures rose and fell and tantalizing glimpses, principally through the study of buildings and burials, can be had of a surprising and resilient place.

The result of a lifetime of work, Robin Fleming's major new addition to the Penguin History of Britain could not be more opportune. A richly enjoyable, varied and surprising book, Britain after Romeallows its readers to see Britain's history in a quite new light.

Reviews

This is a very human and humane treatment of the forgotten people of early Britain... an exciting, often brilliant and always thought-provoking synthesis

—— Times Literary Supplement

The Empire Stops Here is not only a history. It is also an engaging modern travelogue...an unexpectedly universal legacy of the empire

—— Mary Beard , Financial Times

Philip Parker is the perfect combination of compelling narrative historian and observant travel writer. This is one of the liveliest works of ancient history I've ever read

—— A.N. Wilson

Intriguing...with this extraordinary book, [Parker] has raised a monument all of his own

—— Tom Holland , Guardian

A blend of travelogue, classical history and archaeology. His quest through the imperial badlands of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa succeeds in throwing fresh light onto the story of Rome and its often lunatic fringes, while offering classically minded travellers a few fresh ideas for routes and discoveries of their own

—— Sunday Times

The book promotes itself as a 'groundbreaking mixture of travel and history' and Parker writes with confident fluency about both... Any lover of history will find something in it to fascinate them. Every page contains some gem of a fact that the author has lovingly unearthed. The patience, effort and research that have gone into The Empire Stops Here are awe-inspiring

—— Douglas Jackson , Scotsman

Gives the readers a lucid account of the Empire's expansion

—— Contemporary Review

Parker has the tone of a dream Latin teacher, disciplined and wry, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the classical world

—— Vera Rule , Guardian

A Royal Affair is an entertaining tale ...Tillyard's account of the brothers is heroic...[she] tells this astonishing tale with bravura

—— John de Falbe , Daily Telegraph

She has returned to what she knows-and does-best, teasing out the bonds of love, hate and pretend indifference that bind siblings, no matter what their historical pedigree, into a cat's cradle of consequence

—— Economist

The story is brilliantly told. In its descriptive flourishes it is sometimes fearlessly novelistic, yet it travels long distances for scholarly scruples

—— John Mullan , Times Literary Supplement

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