Before reading this book I was pretty ignorant about the Vikings. Although I didn't quite picture them as thugs in horned helmets running around raping and pillaging, I didn't know much different. This book has definitely enlightened me. It tells the history of the Vikings, mainly as seen from a UK perspective, in an interesting and straight forward way. It pulls together archaeology, historical documents, literature and even population genetics to weave a compelling story. I had never realised for example that England was essentially divided in two in the 9th century; I also now know where Kings Alfred and Cnut fit into British history. Although intended as the accompanying book to the BBC2 TV series of the same name it stands up perfectly well on it own. As someone who is more interested in ancient history I was surprised how even in 'historical' times the contemporary documents need to be correlated with, and frequently contradict' the archaeological evidence. As the book notes, history tends to be written by people with their own agenda.
244 pages, Hodder & Stoughton