A fascinating study of the 10th century and of the Battle of Brunanburh in particular.
Michael Livingston leaves no stone unturned in order to give the reader a balanced perspective of the men and events that led to a united England under Athelstan.

The authors focus on, and analysis of, the great Battle of Brunanburh gives the reader a greater understanding, not only of the battle itself, but also of the difficulties in locating a battle that was fought over a thousand years ago.

For anyone wanting to read about Brunanburh, about the struggles of Alfred the Great and his descendants against the onslaught of Norse invasions, this is a satisfyingly comprehensive book, written with style and panache. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I had heard of the Battle of Brunanburh before I read Never Greater Slaughter by Michael Livingston, but my knowledge was limited to the fact that this had taken place in 937 between Æthelstan, King of England, King Alfred’s grandson, and an alliance led by Anlaf, a Viking chieftain, other chieftains and Constantine King of the Scots, in which Æthelstan was victorious. So I was very keen to find out more.

The title is taken from the poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describing the battle thus:

Never greater slaughter Was there on this island, never as many Folk felled before this By the Swords edges.

The location of the battle has been lost. Historians, archaeologists, linguists and other researchers have studied the little evidence that remains about the battle and put forward ideas about that location. In this book Livingston concludes that the only ‘certain pieces of information about the field at Brunanburgh – the place-names by which it was known in the immediate years afterwards – unquestionably point us to blood being shed in the mid-Wirral.’ (location 76%)

It seems to me that this is a very thorough and detailed book describing the battle and the various theories about its location. But not only that Livingston sets out his definition of history and its limitations. For example he says that whilst some facts will be known, a great many through the passage of time are lost, and some are facts that people have chosen to record to suit their own needs – their own bias in other words – or are simply not true.

Then Livingston describes what is known about the period leading up to the battle, describes the battle itself, and, having stated his objections to other possible locations, explains the reasons he concludes the location is in the Wirral, which seems convincing to me.

I found this a well researched and fascinating book that gave me a much better understanding of the period.

My thanks to the publishers for a review copy via NetGalley.

This is a great historical reference for battle in that time and period and would be a delight to any historian or history buff. It is filled with great Detail’s and historical information and was incredibly informative.

Brunanburh! Not a name anyone would associate with a list of famous battles in our island's long and chequered history, let alone one that had a formative part in the creation of England.

As a sometime history lover, I was delighted to receive an ARC of this book by the historian, Michael Livingston.

The book is an in-depth consideration of the life and times of people leading up to and at the battle and its impact on the formation of the country we now call England. From my viewpoint, it was well-researched with many citations and references.

This, however, is not an easily digested story but rather an, at times dry, academic account of Livingston's views and opinions. Nevertheless, I found them fascinating, though I did declare earlier I am a sometime history lover. I also learned things about our nation's history that I had never read or heard of before. For that, I very much enjoyed the book.

I am sure that many would dispute his research, assertions, and assumptions, as is the wont of scholars the world over. However, I read the book to learn not to criticise another's opinions

This was a riveting and engaging encount of a decisive battle that is often overlooked in comparison to other battles, and certainly one that does not seem to be covered enough in history class. I found the writing to be very engaging and approachable, opening the subject matter up to everyone, and I particularly liked how Livingston approached the topic. He looks at it as a puzzle, and is clearly aware of the limitation in the sources and potential bias, and the research here is clearly well done and then well translated for those with less knowledge. That this book deals with the time frame of the Cornwell books is just icing on the cake as far as I am concerned, and I will certainly be looking for more books by the author.

I studied ‘The Battle of Brunanburh’, a poem included in some versions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, as a piece of literature, back when I was an undergrad. I knew a little of the real history, of course, because I do think it’s important to understand the context that literary works come from — but I’d never dug into the detail, and this book was a great opportunity to do just that, and one I really enjoyed.

Livingston does a great job not only of making his case for the location of Brunanburh (though I’m sure I’d find other accounts persuasive, and don’t particularly have a horse in the race) but of providing the context for what made the battle so important, so crucial, that it ended up being remembered in verse recorded in a chronicle. He avoids fictionalising too much, apart from in one of the final chapters during which he tries to reconstruct the battlefield somewhat — and he manages to write engagingly, so that I read this almost in one go. (Okay, I had to stop for work, but I happily would have sat and read it straight through.)

I can’t speak for the historical accuracy of the book, but I note that he does include footnotes and sources to help support his argument, and he also responds to some of the counterarguments to his ideas, which is usually a good sign. It’s popular history, in the end, but I feel like it matched up pretty well with what I do know, and his quoted translations of the Anglo-Saxon poem match my own pretty well (so I trust either his knowledge of the language or the translation he’s working with, for that part).

For me, this was part nostalgic delight (but how good is my Anglo-Saxon now? ah, not so hot), part genuinely good read, and partly, yeah, curiosity about where he’d nail down as the site of the battle. I think he has me convinced, though I’d be interested to read rebuttals.

It′s strange how a defeat can persist longer in history than a victory. I knew about the disastrous battle of Maldon and the reckless Byrhtnoth, but had never heard of Brunanburh and the pious Athelstan before reading this book. The only detail I remembered about Athelstan was that he had raised the minimum age for the death penalty to fifteen which predisposed me to support him.
The battle is between the ″English″ on one side, and an allied force of Vikings and northern British kings on the other. Although it was not a completely decisive battle (in the way of the Battle of Hastings) it was a battle that defined the borders of an ″English″ land. (I have used quotation marks for ″English″ since it would not have necessarily been a distinct identity at the time.) The book encompasses more than just the battle, it summarises the history leading up to it, going back to Alfred the Great and previous Viking invasions. And it also touches on the logistics and the enactment of an early Medieval battle, including the aftermath which is rarely described.
The precise manoeuvres and even location of the battle are not known, although a strong argument is made for the battle taking place on the Wirral. I occasionally found it difficult to follow the politics leading up to the battle, but this was mainly because names have many variations, often have similar prefixes, and are reused over several generations. But the author is very good at interpreting the few source materials to give the battle context and vividness, and that makes for a very readable book for a lay reader.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley

Brunanburh - like many other battles both before and after, neither memorialised nor physically remembered with monument or building.

We are treated to a detailed history leading up to the battle, looking at the military, the political and the personal, using archaeology and contemporary sources, and well as putting some of these sources under the microscope. Livingston then goes on to reconstruct the battle using known sources and basic assumptions - and here is research comes to the fore.

The author, as is his prerogative, has his own theory on the most likely location of Brunanburh, though he does explore other options - and as he mentions "... nothing better stokes enthusiasm than a case of the unknowns ...". Livingston puts forth his case for his location convincingly, whilst acknowledging that this may not agree with others investigating this particular battle.

I found this to be a well researched, informative and accessible read. Whether you agree of not with Livingston's theories, he has covered off a lot of the leg work for you to do your own research and to draw your own conclusions.

I was full of anticipation about this book as I am a fan of the Bernard Cornwall series the Last Kingdom and I am interested in this period of history. The book is well written and engaging with some new insights into the Battle of Brunanburh. However, unfortunately, it is not suited to reading on a kindle as the maps and other numerical data are not accessible. This did take away from my enjoyment of the book though this was in no way the fault of the author.
I would read more by this author and I liked his willingness to put forward different ideas and arguments whilst (understandably) being more persuasive about his own views. It has given me greater insight into a period I am interesting in but have relatively limited knowledge of and is very accessible to those who want to get some background on the period and/or the Cornwall series.

This is a book by an American historian on the Battle of Brunanburgh. This was a large scale battle between an alliance of a Viking force led by Anlaf, King of Dublin, Constantine II, King of Scotland and Owain, King of Strathclyde against an Anglo-Saxon army under King Athelstan, King Alfred’s grandson. Though it was a huge battle, the exact place of it has been forgotten and most of the written accounts are chronicles compiled many years later. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle includes a poem from which much of our knowledge of the battle comes.
Livingstone makes, to my mind, a convincing case that the battle took place on The Wirral as it was easy to sail there from Dublin, Strathclyde, and Scotland. Based on place names and the believed routes of Roman roads, he believes that the battle took place in the Bebington / Bromborough area. This is more speculative as is his view that the combined invasion fleet landed in the Wallasey area.
The book is a fascinating example of historical detective work, based on place names, chronicles, archaeology, and knowledge of the ships and military tactics of the period. I read it as a NetGalley proof that scrambled the numbers and maps so some of the detail was hard to follow. I would recommend that anyone with a strong interest in this battle should have an Ordnance Survey map of The Wirral to hand when they are reading this book.

Never Greater Slaughter is the story of one battle, Brunanburh, in 937 between King Athelstan of the English, and a combined force of the Scots, the Dublin Norse, and the kingdom of Strathclyde, under the leadership of Anlaf, Constantine and Owain. But it is not the story of the battle, but rather, a detailed examination as to where this battle took place, and also why, for the battle site of Brunanburh has been lost to the passage of time, with any number of suggestions as to where it might actually have taken place having been made.

This is an eminently readable account of what is a complex and confusing time period. However, some of the information provided is slightly skewed in favour of the author's chosen positioning. However, this is to be expected in a work of this type - it is answering and suggesting why this must be where Brunanburh took place and why other proposed sites are incorrect.

It highlights how an event such as this still has much to add to the narrative of events in Great Britain and Ireland during the tenth century and how there is so much that is beyond our reach.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

This is a really interesting read, the first half of the book is about the run up to the Battle of Brunanburh, where an alliance of Scots, Irish and Vikings met with an English army, hoping to squash the English once an for all. It was a massive and lengthy battle with the English coming out on top - where they are to this day. The location of the battle has been lost over the centuries and Michael Livingston's theory on the location seems entirely feasible to me, but not everyone agrees with him - as you would expect. In my Kindle edition of the book all of the dates in the text have been replaced with hieroglyphics which is a bit of a drawback in a history book, I hope that will be rectified at some point.

I'm not usually one for any kind of military history, but I will always make an exception for the Anglo-Saxons I love so much. Quite lucky, aren't they? Even the Plantagenets don't get that kind of treatment from me.

Part of the draw here though is that the book is so much more than the battle itself, but the archaeology behind finding out where the battle truly took place, as this information as been long lost to history.

The Battle of Brunanburh seems inevitable, once one knows the history leading up to it. The author does a fantastic job laying this history out in an easily readable way even for those with little background knowledge on the topic. He begins with the Celtic tribes who once called England home, even though they didn't call it England. Then come the Romans, then the Saxons. Slowly but surely England begins to take shape, though it will still not be called that for a couple more centuries. When we finally see Athelstan he is doing his thang, humbling kings, conquering their lands, demanding loyalty.

But this would not have been possible for him without the equally heavy lifting done by his grandfather decades earlier.

Not until my fave, Alfred the Great, came along would the stage even be set for this to happen. It was through his uniting of several of the individual kingdoms - Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, etc. - that Athelstan could stand on his shoulders and after this terribly violent battle, truly declare himself the King of a united England.

So, why is this battle not more well-known?

After all, for generations to come, it was simply referred to as the "great battle". Everyone would know what you were talking about with this reference. Yet today, so many have no idea it ever occurred, or what its significance is.

Part of the problem is, the location of the battle is unknown, though great care has gone into locating it and the author makes an incredibly compelling case here for his theory. I do have to admit though that I have not read other books on the subject. Even so, the author spends time in the Appendix laying out why he disagrees with the theories of other historians. This is not done in a malicious kind of way, but he points out things that don't make sense with what we know, or don't fit the pattern of evidence. I appreciate how thorough he is with the material.

Once you learn about how truly massive this battle was, the logistics that must have been involved, it feels a bit overwhelming. We are talking about Athelstan and his army standing against his enemies - an alliance that would never have come together were it not for their mutual hatred of Athelstan. In fact, these allies had previously spent a good bit of time fighting one another in previous years at various times. But they figured that the only way to defeat Athelstan, to stop him from taking over every last inch of the island, was to band together. Leading the Vikings out of Dublin was their chief, the famous Analf. Coming from Scotland was King Constantine, and rounding out the trio was King Owain of Strathclyde. These men were seasoned leaders and accustomed to fierce fighting. it is no wonder they were confident that by teaming up, they could defeat Athelstan once and for all.

It might sound kind of cheesy, but just think about that for a moment. Seeing these armies come together to form one massive group, pouring from the ships that had to have carried at least two of them there. Seeing the equally massive shield-wall of Athelstan's own army ready for a fight. It's breathtaking.

Even more so when you start thinking about the possible locations this could have occurred, and can place the armies in their respective camps.

So many people are involved in seeking out this location, finding the sight of England's birth. Professional and amateur historians, linguists trying to work out all sorts of possible place-name matches, and of course archaeologists who seek whatever scraps they might find to finally be able to say, "Here, this is the place."

Not so easy to do though, when you consider that the battle took place at some point in 937 AD. The author argues for it occurring later in the year and again, given the evidence he presents, it makes sense.

The author starts where we always must in order to have a basis, and that is with research. He uses the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and Egil's Saga, as well as the Annals of Ulster. He also makes references to other chronicles and documents as well and even if the details do not all line up 100%, they all agree on the fact that a major battle occurred in 937 AD and untold thousands died. Like any good historian, the author is aware of the biases that each of these sources carries and has to sift through to find what can be proven by other evidence. This is where those linguists come in VERY handy, breaking apart words and putting them back together, determining the meaning then vs now, and so on. I don't envy them in that job, just reading about it was enough for me.

The author determines after a good couple rounds with all the evidence that the most likely location for this all-important battle is on the Wirral Peninsula in North West England. At this time I am not inclined to disagree, though as I said before this is my first book on the subject. Even so, the passion Dr. Livingston feels for the subject, and the obvious time and thought he has poured into trying to find the site is nothing short of extraordinary. He presents his methodology for how he arrived at his conclusions regarding troop movements, likely encampments, the battle itself, and its aftermath.

My only complaint with the book has to do with formatting, something out of the author's control. Not one single numerical value was present, which sometimes made it difficult to assess parts of the author's argument. Every value, from troop numbers to the years being discussed, was represented with a ? and it was SUUUUUPER annoying.

Otherwise, this was one I enjoyed quite a bit. I have been lucky so far in that I can never really go wrong with a book about Anglo-Saxons. It is my favorite period of England's history and even after devouring so many books on the subject, I am still learning new things.

Highly recommended.

This was the first book I have read by Michael Livingston and I am now eagerly awaiting my purchases of his other titles.

Mr. Livingston has written a completely engrossing account of the battle of Brunanburh, there's a ton of information he presents to you but it's all written in a very accessible and interesting way, it does not at ALL read like a text book, it's not dry or boring. I was drawn in immediately and read far later into the night than I really should have.

The battle of Brunanburh was a pivotal fight in English history, yet is often ignored or simply given passing mention. I was happy to see a through account of the battle.

With a wonderful foreword from Bernard Cornwall, this book covers the Great Battle of Brunanburh. Recognised as both an appalling and crucial battle between English and the Vikings/Briton alliance. Livington explains how the violence even shocked the Britons at that time.
Whilst lesser known, its actual siting has been of much debate, due to a paucity of reliable enough information. Livington has heavily researched the information available at a forensic level to offer his suggestion of where in the Wirral it may have taken place.
It is considered from the perspective of Egill Skallagrímsson, a Viking who fought under King Athelstan, helping him to attain glory as the 1st English King. It reads extremely easily for such a book. It is delivered in a very personable manner, yet steeped in as much fact and triangulation of written events as possible. Livington takes care to rationalise his thinking and justify how he has reached his determinations. He recognises the lack of reliable information has limitations on abilities to speak with surety.
Given this emphasis, it does not focus on the battle and only lightly refers to battle strategies. He respectfully refers to the alternate theories also held and the contentious nature of differing places where others consider it may have taken place. He also touches on the prejudice of others because he has produced his account yet is American. I was blown away by the time and intricate detail that has been poured into his conclusions. I was entertained by the differing significant historical characters of the time. My only niggle was the advanced copy did not correctly displays numbers – so all dates and the like were a mystery!

A fascinating investigative book on the Battle of Brunanburh and the subsequent birth of England. Clearly, the author has thoroughly researched the subject matter and has developed some interesting but controversial conclusions.
There is no doubt that the battle took place, with the English army defeating an alliance of Scots, Vikings, and Welsh armies. However, little else is known about the site of the battle, the size of the armies, the tactics used during the battle, or the number of casualties. There is widespread scholarly conjecture, speculation, and postulation about all of the key factors of the battle. The author concentrates more on the location of the battle, rather than the other associated events, He carefully dissects and dismisses other possible battle sites.
From a historical, military history, and research perspective, the book is outstanding. Also, the well-written preface by Bernard Cornwell brought the book to life. From my perspective, as very little is known about the battle, the book could have been improved by inserting a couple of Bernard Cornwell fictional chapters about the day of the battle itself. The book would have lost none of its professional composition but would make the reader more engaged with the soldiers in the shield walls.

Reviewing a non-fiction isn't easy. If you have no knowledge of the subject matter, you have nothing to compare it to and you could be perpetuating shoddy research that just happens to read well. If you have full knowledge of the subject, you end up doing a peer review and won't be reading it on here.

I'm not exactly in between, but the subject matter, the Anglo-Saxon kings, formed part of my degree course so I am familiar with the battle under discussion in this book, and the wider world exposed in its pages.

I have reviewed this author before and the response from two historians was staggering, disputing in the strongest terms what was in the book, and supplying articles they'd written explaining it. So, I came at this volume with some trepidation.

However, what I found gave me some comfort as Michael Livingstone gives a solid, honest, account of the era, discussing in depth his view and his findings as we approach the archaeology of the battle of Brunanburh.

The location of the battle is the matter under discussion, as well as the background to the battle and why it was fought.. He sites it in the Wirral, and as the Wirral Archaeology group have agreed independently, and the facts (or presented as 'facts') certainly seem to support that. What gives me most hope is that he sets out his reasoning using topography and the sources for the battle and their various distance from the battle in geography and time, what access they each had to the events. He says 'Look, this fits the topography, the detail in the sources, and, most importantly, the timings given in sources.' Viking or Anglo-Saxo, there is still only a certain distance you can travel in a set amount of time, and this is what clinches it for me.

Livingstone does look at the other claims for the site of the battle and argues in a rational way against them, examining each argument and then breaking it down to contradictions and errors, and omissions. He says such things as, 'you can't use the argument that this place isn't in Domesday Book to refute it existed before such and such a date, and then accept that neither is London nor Bristol included when we knew they existed in 1086'.

I'd like to see some peer reviews, judge their arguments but I think that the conclusions of this are sound.

Along with that, this book is written with an honesty and clarity that marks good, modern texts, removed from the academic speak and to more accessible language, without dumbing down. Livingstone's explanation of the use of the term Dark Ages is so obvious - it wasn't 'dark' for them, only us, and it is our problem, not theirs. Love it.

Whether the argument does point to the Wirral as the site of Brunanburh, the book itself is an excellent view of a historian writing his argument, piecing together his view and his reasonings, and his recounting of Anglo-Saxon England and beyond and manages to make a complex situation understandable.

Yeah, read it, if you are interested in this era - you'll learn plenty.

This review, with some alterations, will appear on Discovering Diamonds review site probably in July. https://discoveringdiamonds.blogspot.com/

When I saw the synopsis to this book on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read it as I had followed the works of Bernard Cornwall and his saga of the Last Kingdom and Uhtred. To read a more factual description of the most significant Battle in early English history, albeit with some interpretations that were necessary through the lack of conclusive documentary evidence, was started with great anticipation. At a very early stage I started to feel a slight hint of disappointment when I saw that numerics were delivered to my Kindle as a series of symbols bearing no relation to Arabic numbers. At first this was a minor problem but, later on in the book there were frequent references to numbers of soldiers, ships, populations and, more importantly, dates. All these were then constantly cross referenced for comparison and that was when I ‘lost the plot’!
While I fully appreciate this was a pre-release version of the book, to have this appear on Kindle in this way detracted from both my full understanding of the comparisons and historical context and enjoyment of the book. I have read many other books containing numbers in the text without any form of corruption, so I put this down to a formatting error.
That said, the book is well written and gives the most plausible scenario of the Battle together with the most likely location and I will read it again when released in its final version.

My copy of Never Greater Slaughter, had no dates and no maps that would have helped in finding these battle locations, the routes travelled and the voyages undertaken by the Vikings and Anglo-Saxon fighters. That was difficult and frustrating to say the least, as there was so much detail that you wanted to get clear in the mind.
I have read and greatly enjoyed the Saxon chronicles by Bernard Cornwall, and watched the TV series The Last Kingdom, that really helped bring these Dark Age battles and personalities alive. This book is more scholarly, more detailed in its research, considering this is about a long forgotten battle, whose location has been lost in the mist of times, and we are not even sure about the spelling of this fight. There is a lot of conjecture, and even the author states that the only conclusive evidence comes from Archaeology, but some sites remain stubbornly hidden. Over the centuries, land mass has evolved, dry land has been swallowed by the sea, coastal erosion has probably resisted evidence of such battles. Although the Anglo Saxon chronicles are referred to frequently, history is written by the victors and reflects those dominant values, spelling of place names change, so this tale is almost like a treasure hunt, trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. The enthusiasm of the author is sparkling, and draws the reader in to this story. I admire the dedication to find the truth about such an obscure event, but I think I prefer the Last Kingdom.
On the positive side, I enjoyed finding out about the Saxon kingdoms, here in East Anglia, we quite like the idea of Vikings trampling over our land and leaving us with unusually named villages! We have a few Burgh names hereabouts, some still have their ancient walls. King Alfred, and his daughter Aethelflaed, I knew from the Tv series. I liked the rules of battle, follow the roads, no man is a fool, a battle is its ground and men move like water, very well put.
A little too wordy at times for me, but never dull, unlike other well researched books. I’m sure when the finished edition is available, it will have maps and dates, I’m sure that would have made a large difference to me.
I will leave reviews later.
Thanks to Osprey Publishing for my ARC. This is my honest review.

Interesting book. Initially I didn't like the author's style of writing but i stuck to it and the information was definitely worth it. It is clear and follows an easy route through the huge story of the vikings incursions if I may call it that into Britain. We have a lot of very good fiction on Alfred and brothers, son and grandsons but this is the 'real' thing as far as we can be certain - at least it seems to be. If I had one quibble it might be that there is too much information - that I think you do need to know something of the times and battles to get the most out of it. The author covers the history of the vikings from all parts i.e. the so called Great Heathen Army and from Ireland, Deira and perhaps its scope is a little too large. However I learnt a lot from it and hence recommend for anyone interested in the vikings in Britain.