With great clarity and charm Leyser offers a bracing and necessary corrective to the notion of a cloistered life in the Dark Ages... The book is clearly and cogently organized, with an excellent referencing system of cross-referencing, and a well-designed and highly necessary index'
Spectator
If only academics would stop writing for each other and address the general public, whose interest in their own homes and history is easily awakened. But that is exactly what Henrietta Leyser is doing and has done. We need more books like hers
Literary Review
Beda (Bede) is our most valuable historical source on Anglo-Saxon England, and this is a perfect introduction to the man, his work and the world in which he lived
Britain
Leyser provides details of visible remains, of archaeological investigations and places where their discoveries can be viewed
Times Literary Supplement