Nicholas Higham Archives - Aspects of History

How England Began

How Britain broke away from the Roman world is as essential to understanding the rise of the English language and a national identity as Germanic migration, subsequent conflict with native Britons and conversion to Christianity.

Nicholas Higham

The western Roman Empire collapsed so long ago that we might well ask ‘why should that matter to us now?’. Yet, in multiple ways, our lives are conditioned, still, by those events. Take language, for example. Mostly, the western Empire spoke Latin. Despite substantial...

Nicholas Higham on How England Began

During a wide-ranging conversation, the historian contemplates his new study of Late Roman Britain and early Anglo-Saxon England and recent evidence and perspectives found in the period that sits uneasily between the two.

Paul Bernardi

First of all, Nicholas, congratulations on the publication of this endlessly fascinating and absorbing work. In the introduction, you describe the book as a fresh look at the subject rather than a rehash of your earlier work, Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons, some...