This engrossing history of the British people between the first Viking raids in 865 and the expulsion of the Vikings from York in 954 is notable for being a more nuanced portrait of that era... Lands other than Wessex come into fascinating new focus'

The Bookseller

An evocative look at a period that continues to grab the popular imagination

History Revealed

This is much more than a book about the Vikings versus King Alfred... [Adams'] great achievement is to cover events throughout the whole of Britain with some excursions into Ireland and Europe as well'

TLS

A beautifully crafted and impeccably compiled book, and one that is certainly a must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in the events and figures that moulded Britain during the reign of the Vikings

All About History

Essential reading for all those interested in late Anglo-Saxon Britain

Historical Novel Society

Adams very usefully drops from the macro-narratives to detailed examples of what all this meant to people at ground level, using the evidence of coins and charters and, especially, archaeology – much of which exposes the written chronicles and histories as propaganda... A great virtue of his book – in following the archaeologists and the geographers, the reconstructors and the genealogists, Adams never forgets to ask what it looked like to the people on the ground'

London Review of Books