Max Adams is a critically-acclaimed author and biographer, an archaeologist,  traveller and writing coach. His journeys through the landscapes of the past and the present, of human geography, music, art and culture are a continuing source of inspiration in his writing.

Ælfred's Britain will be published by Head of Zeus on 2nd November 2017.

Max writes

For an author of Dark Age history to tackle the Viking Age (roughly 800-950) might seem an obvious book project.  Abundant material, both literary and artistic, propels an irresistible narrative of  warriors and heroic struggle, while the contemporary relevance of Christian states struggling against a predatory foe with apocalyptic ideologies seems obvious.  And yet, in writing about Britain, the whole of Britain, in this period, daunting challenges emerge.  To begin with, the canvas is vast, encompassing all of Atlantic Europe and beyond.  The available sources – Viking sagas written more than two hundred years after the events they describe; an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with a strong pro-Wessex bias, must be treated with caution.  They are also patchy: we have very little indeed for Scotland and Wales in this period– we hear of those kingdoms primarily through sketchy news reaching the distant ears of Irish annalists.

The temptation is to write another biography of Ælfred, the model English king whose enthusiasm for learning means that, for the first time, we can actually read the words of a literate, thoughtful English king.  But that is an inherently Anglo-centric narrative, which would do little to create a credible portrait of the rest of the British Isles, where hints and fragments of hints suggest that interesting, not to say monumental events and cultural contacts are shaping our world.  These are the generations when great dynasts emerge in Scotland under Constantín mac Áed and in Wales under Hywel Dda.  To the north of Watling Street Viking meets native, intermingles; converts; builds thriving towns and forges new cultural, legal and political institutions.  How, then, to draw a balanced picture?

In Ælfred's Britain I have opened a treasure chest of broad and nuanced resources: the dispassionate testimony of excavation and of coins; the trickier evidence of place names.  I have sought to read between the persuasive lines of the Chronicle for a subtler, more complex and, I hope, richer account of Britain's encounter with Scandinavian raiders, entrepreneurs and settlers. 

The landscape of these islands, from Iona and Portmahomack in the north to Athelney in the south, has had its say, too. I have, I hope, put Ælfred and Wessex in their place.  It is for the reader to judge the outcome.

The book is copiously illustrated with maps, timelines and photographs.  Explore members will be able to get signed copies from the publication date, at a modest discount.  

Photos:

2. Ælfred's Victorian statue at Wantage, his Berkshire birthplace. 3. Ragnarok, the last great battle, portrayed on a Christian cross slab in the Isle of Man. 4. Scandinavian place names, widespread in the Midlands and in Yorkshire.