The Normans in the South, 1016-1130 (The Normans in Sicily) - Tapa blanda

This book is about the 'other' Norman Conquest. It is the story of Robert Guiscard, perhaps the most extraordinary European adventurer between Caesar and Napoleon. In one year, 1084, he had both the Eastern and Western Emperors retreating before him and one of the most formidable of medieval Popes in his power. It is also the story of his brother Roger, thanks to whom he conquered Sicily from the Saracens; and of Roger's descendants, notably his son Roger 11, who converted his father's achievement into a cosmopolitan and cultivated kingdom whose surviving monuments still dazzle us today. Both in its power and flamboyance this kingdom marks the apogee of Sicily's strange and tumultuous history.

The Normans in the South is the first of two volumes that recount the dazzling story of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily. The second volume, The Kingdom of the Sun is also being reissued in Faber Finds. They were previously reissued as an omnibus (The Normans in Sicily). They are being restored to their separate incarnations for the convenience of readers.

'He retains the reader's interest throughout by the graces of his style as well as by his forthright and generally just judgement, and the wit . . . with which the book is salted.' David Knowles, The Tablet

'Diligence, narrative skill, and a scholarship fired by enthusiasm' Lord Kinross, Sunday Telegraph

'I found the book very enjoyable indeed. It is beautifully written.' Nancy Mitford