Summary: a fine introduction to pre-Norman English history

Over the past 40 years Michael Wood has become known for his highly engaging television documentaries. Some of the books that this has prompted, such as The Story of India, are essentially travel books. Others, such as In Search of Shakespeare, are much more substantial affairs.

Fortunately, In Search of the Dark Ages falls into the latter category. It is a fine history of England from the departure of the Roman Legions to the Norman conquest. Along the way Wood throws out a range of interesting observations and asides, including a judgement that, based on what he wrote in his Confessions, St Patrick was probably from Carlisle.

In the latest edition of this book, Wood has added material on hitherto neglected figures and issues, including Aethelflaed (Millie Brady’s character in the Last Kingdom), who Wood judges to be comparable to her father Alfred in the making of a country called England, and Theodore of Tarsus and Hadrian the African who together established a school teaching the classics in Canterbury during the 7^th Century. Just as is the case today, women and immigrants have contributed more to English society than many would like to acknowledge.

Overall then, a fine and entertaining work of English history before William the Bastard showed up in 1066 and helped make stealing other people’s countries the defining trait of the country he stole himself.