I have been on a British history kick recently and this book satiated my hunger. I thought this book was incredibly well-written and I found the research to be incredibly thorough. You could feel the author's passion.

My understanding of Anglo-Saxons, before this book, was shallow. Cartoons and contemporary movies and tv series were all I had to base it on. My South African history didn’t really cover them. Despite this, I followed Tony Sullivan’s deep dive into the early Anglo-Saxon Kings and found it a scintillating read! I especially appreciated the way in which the author recognised where our definitive knowledge ends and speculation begins…and there is a lot of speculation.

This period of history is full of questions but I found the interesting, person-centred, approach different from some history books which go from battle to battle. It speaks to the way of life, how global factors affected the transitions, and how these Kings contributed to the Britain we have today.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, I read it through in quick time wanting to know what happened next! If you love learning more about history, I highly recommend it. It’s a five out of five on enJOYment scale.

I read some historical fiction set at the time of the early Anglo-Saxon kings and this book made me learn something more about the historical setting and the kings.
It's a good book to start learning about this historical time.

This is definitely a great book to have people start with when looking to learn more about the kings and their archaeological presence. It was well-researched and eloquently written, although some of the organization and pacing felt a bit strange.

An interesting and informative look at Britain after the Romans left that is a must read for anyone looking to learn more about the era of Arthurian legends.

Mr. Tony Sullivan has produced a very serviceable history of early England. Pen and Sword continue to put out quality products by authors who are passionate about their subjects.

2 ⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

Unfortunately this one was a miss for me.

I found there to be a lot of info dumping without interpretation or context. Additionally the author has taken the decision to abbreviate primary texts to things like “HB” etc after only one use of the full title. There are no footnotes to help readers either. I found this very distracting-I like to know my primary sources in full (especially when the ones primarily referred to are not well