A.D. 500: A Year in the Dark Ages: A Journey Through the Dark Isles of Britain and Ireland - Tapa dura

Simon Young offers nugget after nugget of fascinating detail to paint a colourful portrait of a time when native savagery was being tempered by the arrival of Christianity in a country on the cusp between druidic power and the first cold grip of Church rule... This bawdy , picaresque and high-spirited book... wears its considerable learning lightly and opens a window on a time long neglected... (IRELAND ON SUNDAY)

Informative and entertaining, this is popular history at its best. (FINANCIAL TIMES)

¿A kind of Roman Britain version of Mad Max¿ a brilliant, funny, original book¿. (Yorkshire Evening Press)

¿Entertaining and informative¿ It throws new light on the mysterious Dark Ages¿. (Belfast Telegraph)

¿A cross between David Starkey and Bill Bryson with a bit of 1066 and all that mixed in¿. (BBC South East)

... an accessible overview of what Britain might have been like after the Romans had left. (BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE)

Enjoyable and ingenious, this breathes life into the period. (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

very clever (BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY)

hugely entertaining... What a joy to be able to recommend a book about misery, bloodshed and grisly superstition for being funny, compassionate and clear-eyed. (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)