The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The Fateful Year: 1066 When William, Duke of Normandy, defeated King Harold II on Senlac ridge on that chill autumn day in October 1066, he must have hoped that the whole country would submit to him without further delay. But he soon found out that little had changed...
Anglo Saxons in the Varangian Guard The loss of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 brought about a seismic change in English society. As the conquering Normans came to dominate the country, many English noblemen and elite warriors found themselves dispossessed and with...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of Rising TideMunich Wolf, by Rory Clements is set in 1935 Munich. When the body of a young English socialite is found, Kripo detective Sebastian Wolff is called in to solve the politically sensitive case. The...
Paul, many congratulations on Blood Feud. We’re now at the start of a new series with Blood Feud, it’s 1067 and so post Hastings. The Conqueror has been crowned. What was the state of the kingdom so soon after this seismic event in English history? Thanks. I’m not...
Blood Debt is the first book in Adam Staten’s Honour Bound trilogy and is a coming-of-age story set in the tumultuous years leading up to the battle of Hastings in 1066. The story moves at a steady pace before speeding up in the final third of the book as it...
In 1066 King Harold Godwinson of England met Duke William of Normandy on the battlefield near Hastings in what proved to be a pivotal moment in English history. What is less well known is that this was not the first time that the two men had shared a battlefield....
This engrossing title is Don Hollway’s third non-fiction book, and his second on the 11th century. Like the previous two books, it is a narrative history, and draws on a wide range of primary sources to create a balanced account of events. The book is focused on...
Books of 2023 from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyMy book of the year is SAS Forged in Hell. The next instalment of Damien Lewis’ WW II odyssey with the men of 1 SAS, as they become the ‘tip of the spear’ in the invasion of Sicily...
M.J. Porter, congratulations on the Brunanburh Series. Why does Æthelstan appeal to you as a historical figure, and why does his story demand retelling in contemporary society? Æthelstan is an intriguing character to explore. We actually know very little about him,...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyQueen High by CJ Carey is the sequel to Widow Land and a counter factual/dystopian novel; in a similar vein to 1984, Fatherland and Brave New World. It is set in a 1950s Britain that...
