I found the biographical section really interesting and also how in the aftermath of this period, Alfred took Viking technology and made into something he could use.

This is a book that will get revisited over and over.

Read the full review here

Medieval Sword School

Overall it is an excellent read for both new and established scholars of this period, written in an engaging and authoritative style. If the proliferation of Saxon names proves a difficulty, Hill has been careful to relate them to their place and context and this helps make it a very worthwhile foray into a period that was not the dark ages of legend, but one rich in English history that we all ought to know more about.

John Francis

Any history of England in the Dark Ages is doomed to struggle with a lack of source material, but Paul Hill, resisting the popular temptation to plug the gaps with semi-plausible fantasy, takes the surviving documents and presents a remarkably comprehensive narrative of the military achievements of Alfred the Great. Beginning with a description of 9th Century England and the first Danish attempts at colonisation, there follows a quite absorbing account of the emergence of Alfred and his initial efforts to protect Wessex from an intelligent and relentless foe. Following the great Saxon victory at Edington in 878, the book then chronicles the establishment of Alfred's system of fortified "burhs" across the land, a tremendous feat of engineering which not only protected Wessex from conquest during Alfred's lifetime, but also provided a solid platform from which his equally brilliant successors would advance to reclaim the northern realms, eventually unifying the English peoples under a single king. This is a superb account of a man whose contribution to the political, legal and military legacy of England cannot be understated.

Pegasus Archive - Mark Hickman