Bøker av Stuart Laycock

England today is a rich, complex mix of identities, cultures, and heritages. However, in the decades after Roman Britain collapsed in the fifth century, the cultures of the Angles and of the Saxons, with significant degrees of homogeneity, spread rapidly westwards across much of eastern, southern and central England. Then it stopped. Or was stopped. For the area then still beyond Anglo-Saxon reach is characterized by a network of military and economic links across the island. Perhaps significantly, this includes parts of Britain traditionally associated with King Arthur. Later, the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural kingdom of Mercia, in alliance with British kingdoms in Wales, spread from the Midlands across England under the mysterious King Penda, dominating the earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms with its wealth and military power. The region that gave birth to Mercia is also a region that was a most likely base for the elusive figure of King Arthur. The authors use historical and archaeological evidence, much of it new, to explore the link between Arthur's kingdom and the rise of Penda's Mercia. They seek to locate lost Arthurian battlefields and understand what happened there, with exciting, new results. This is the story of one region, two kings and two centuries that changed England forever.

An affectionate portrait of England with plenty of self-deprecating English humour and unknown stories

The enticing histories of lost countries only found on old stamps and records

Yes, we gave Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, and all the rest, football, and this is the first book to explore how

With a hundred haikus, each accompanied by a wonderful full-page illustration and enlightening commentary, this book is perfect for those looking for a more poetic exploration of the Roman Empire.

This book takes a look at some of the truly awe-inspiring ways our country has been a force, for good and for bad, right across the world. A lot of people are vaguely aware that a quarter of the globe was once pink, but that's not even half the story.

Many Britons like to think they have a basic understanding of Britain's amazing history. The Roman invasion, Alfred and the Danes, 1066, Magna Carta, Bannockburn, Agincourt, the Wars of the Roses, Henry VIII and his wives, the Reformation, etc., etc. The trouble is that concentrating on just a few over-familiar landmarks like these can give a distorted picture of the land we live in. What would our history look like if, instead of looking at all the bits everybody knows, we started telling it through some of the bits everybody doesn't knows? We set off to find out. The result is Unexpected Britain, tracing the story of Britain from a time before Rome to a time within the lives of people still living, but going beyond the well known to explore a world of different angles and fascinating, little-known facts that bring fresh life to the story of what Britain has been and what Britain is.

The centuries after the end of Roman control of Britain in AD 410 are some of the most vital in Britain's history - yet some of the least understood.

Attempts to understand how Roman Britain ends and Anglo-Saxon England begins have been undermined by the division of studies into pre-Roman, Roman and early medieval periods.