Robin Fleming's history is Volume II in the Penguin History of Britain, for which the general editor, David Cannadine, 'laid down three inviolable rules': no footnotes, no historiography (that is, no discussion of the ebb and flow of historical opinion), and make it accessible to everyone, general readers, students and professional historians alike (in other words, don't just write for the trade). Fleming's study is clear without being simplistic, and full of new information, bringing together in particular data from many archaeological sites that have been hidden away until now in specialist publications.

LRB 17 March 2011 | PDF Download