Description: Before England, Wales, and Scotland were created, before Alfred the Great and the Great Viking Army, before even a raid on Lindisfarne, the kingdoms that made up the British Isles were a squabbling, kaleidoscopic mosaic of realities. Some centred their livelihood around rivers, others dug deep to harvest resources from the ground beneath them.
Brief description: Alex Harvey is a postgraduate archaeology student from the University of York, and now a lecturer and museum professional who works in Yorkshire. He has written for academic journals and magazines like Early Medieval England, and has presented research at conferences from Leeds to Leiden. Author of Forgotten Vikings: New Approaches To The Viking Age, and Riddles Of The Isle, Harvey continually seeks to make lesser-known elements of history accessible and entertaining.
Review Quotes: "Harvey's greatest strength is his research and source use. He stands "atop a monumental pile of papers and books"--there is a bibliography and footnotes behind every chapter. For a book aimed at general readers, it is impressively scholarly."-- "Medieval History"