The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Oath breaker is the second book in Staten’s Honour Bound trilogy, following on from Blood Debt, released earlier in 2024. Before I start, I should confess two things: first, that this era is an era that ranks among my favourites, meaning I am predisposed to enjoy...
Books of 2023 from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyIt’s been a great year for fiction and non-fiction, but these books are my first amongst equals. Every Spy a Traitor by Alex Gerlis follows Agent Archie, a Russian mole in MI6 across...
Gytha Godwinson: a Tale of Terror, Trial and Triumph Women in the High Middle Ages often seem to be a faceless, nameless mass. Life was not precious and survival precarious: they were the silent and hard labouring ‘other half’ in a world that was distinctly male and...
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...
