In Search of the Dark Ages

The Oxford scholar & historian has now produced and directed over ten magnificent BBc series and alongside his magnificent "Domesday Insearch of the Roots of England" this incredible book on the most mysterious part of Britains history are amongst his earliest productions. Those familiar with his work will no doubt realise what in depth analysis he provides on his chosen area. The reason for this review is not to highlite this superb book because those who are thinking of buying it will already realise any historians bookshelf would be empty without a copy, but to highlite the traversty of neither his Domesday or this incredible Dark Ages series being available on DVD. I own three copies of this book, one being a first edition and another an American publication which has different photographs to the Uk version. Even though both series are now well over twenty years old i can still remember them, Domesday especially. They are in a similar vein to the David Dimbleby's BBC series on Britains history but with Woods meticulous eye for detail and infectious charm of somebody who knows his subject inside out. Those series are still some of the finest historical programmes on Britains past ever produced by the BBc and to my knowledge have not been repeated on television since their original broadcast so many years ago. Two years ago i actually wrote to the BBc to ask them were there any plans on releasing these magnificent series onto DVd and their replie was " We may get around to it some day but there are no plans just as yet to release them" I'm sure there are many people who have bought this book or several of his books and have never seen either of these great series. For some reason his more recent equally brilliant series on the life of Shakespeare and others have been released onto disc but as the title of his earliest book "In Search of the Dark Ages" implies that fabulous series is still shrouded in mystery. If any one out there reading this review works within the BBc department responsible for Dvd transfer PLEASE OH PLEASE PUT BOTH DOMESDAY AND INSEARCH OF THE DARK AGES ONTO DVD WHERE THEY BELONG.

The book is packed full of information and is written in a way that makes it easy to read and understand.

This is a well-written and concise account of England in the Dark Ages. Author Michael Wood seems especially qualified for this sort of subject since he is amazingly proficient in dealing with a time period that has conflicting and missing sources - as he was also with the Trojan War. While the history of the Dark Ages is obscure - in more ways than one - he manages a very clear, concise and accessible narrative. As he was previously only known to me as the host of historical TV shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of his writing. (When it comes to history, he is evidently the king of all media.) I particularly like Wood's diligence in trying to reveal history without a lot of personal opinions or filling in gaps with conjecture masquerading as fact. In this fairly short book the casual historian will almost certainly acquire a significant amount of interesting new knowledge about Dark Age England. My favorite is the chapter on Athelstan (of whom I'd previously never even heard), an enlightened king who conquered the entire island of Britain - something even the Romans never accomplished! The amazing story of Alfred the Great, while less obscure, also makes great reading. There is a surprising amount of relatively unknown and important history packed into this slim book. This is a period of time when reality was often hazy even for the contemporaries. The borders of now largely-forgotten kingdoms shifted and disappeared as people of different cultures, religions and languages clashed over and over. The results had a profound impact on our present day culture and language. (How different things would have turned out if Alfred had not, against all odds, refused to give up!) While many may know how England and the British Empire helped shape the modern world, this book tells you a lot about what shaped England. My one criticism is that the title is misleading. In this book you won't find out much about the world in general, or even continental Europe, during the Dark Ages. It is almost entirely concerned with (what is now) England. But that was enough to make it a very interesting piece of work to me.

This book was conceived as a companion volume to the author's 1981 BBC documentary series of the same name, and it stays current with a postscript penned in 2001. IN SEARCH OF THE DARK AGES tackles some of the same territory of at least two of Wood's subsequent books, DOMESDAY and IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND, though his objectives and lens are different each time. Wood's Dark Age parameters are framed by the Roman triumph over the last, first century A.D. Celtic rebellion led by Boudica (that's right; "Boadicea" was a misreading of the calligraphy in the original source) and the Norman Conquest of 1066. In between, he selects a pageant of personages to elucidate succeeding generations and the overlay of first Roman, then Anglo Saxon, Viking and finally Norman cultures: King Arthur, the nameless Sutton Hoo man, Offa, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Eric Bloodaxe, and Ethelred the Unready. The Dark Ages are quite the challenge in which to go looking for the truth, thickly crusted as they are with the opacity caused by too few extant primary sources and too many Medieval fictions, as well as so many change-ups in cultures, language and leadership. Wood does a quality job of reading the sources, critiquing the fictions and sorting out contemporary scholarship and archeological finds. Wood writes in an astoundingly lucid voice that rings with wonder. The immediacy of his tone, though unsensational, does leave you feeling blood-soaked as you emerge from these violent times. Despite the ruinous invasions and battles, you can see a shift in values, the coloring of what would become the English language and the evolution of a nation. This is an excellent book for general readers wishing to shore up their knowledge of western civilization.

Wood is best known as a BBC "presenter" of the PBS variety, but he's also an Oxford-trained historian. His books (and television series) are solid history but still accessible. This book and his Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England are almost two halves of a whole, an investigation of what happened in England between the departure of the legions and the arrival of William's Normans, and why, and what the effects were on the further development of the "English" (. . . Celtic, Danish, Norwegian, Norman French . . .) people. Lots of maps and illustrations, lots of archaeological plats, and a nice turn of phrase in nearly every paragraph.