Britain after Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400-1070, by Robin Fleming

Abstract

Robin Fleming has written a very successful and, it should be stressed, important book. To write a history of Britain from the Romans to the late eleventh century that will be intellectually stimulating and accessible to a non-professional audience is a challenge of itself, but it is made particularly daunting by the existence of James Campbell’s The Anglo-Saxons, co-written with Patrick Wormald and Eric John in 1982, which stands as a model introduction to the period. As Fleming must have been painfully aware, one could write a very good survey of Britain from 400 to 1070, tweaking their picture of Offa and Alfred here, spreading their range to cover Wales and Scotland there, bringing in the Prittlewell Prince and the Staffordshire Hoard, and very easily still end up with something that was no better than theirs—especially as the series format dictates no illustrations and no footnotes. But in the event she has succeeded triumphantly. Her book does not replace The Anglo-Saxons as a point of entry into the subject, but, offering a completely different perspective, matches it. Fortunate is the historical field which has two such engaging introductions.