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Summary
Summary
The England of 1000 years ago -- a world that already knew brain surgeons and property developers and even the occasional gossip columnist -- is brought closer than it has ever been before by authors Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger. In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, they interviewed top historians and archaeologists. Research led them to a little-known document of the period, the Julius Work Calendar, a sharply-observed guide that takes us back in time to a charming and very human world of kings and revelers, saints and slave laborers, lingering paganism and profound Christian faith.
Author Notes
Robert Lacey was born in Guilford, Surrey, England on January 3, 1944. He earned a B.A. in 1967, a diploma of education in 1967, and an M.A. in 1970, all from Selwyn College, Cambridge.
Lacey began his writing career as a journalist, working for the Illustrated London News and later the Sunday Times magazine. While working for the latter, he also began writing biographies; his books about Robert, Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh led to a commission to write a history of Queen Elizabeth's reign, to be published during her silver jubilee. Majesty: Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor became an international bestseller, and established Lacey's reputation as a biographer who treated his subjects accurately and fairly.
Lacey is a thorough researcher who has often gone to great lengths to immerse himself in the background of the people he writes about. He moved to the Middle East and even learned Arabic while doing research for The Kingdom, a biography of Saudi Arabia's first ruler, Abdul Aziz Sa'ud. And when writing Ford: The Man and the Machine, about Henry Ford, he relocated to Michigan and worked for a time on the assembly line in an auto plant. He is also the author of Little Man: Meyer Lansky and the Gangster Life, The Queen of the North Atlantic, The Life and Times of Henry the VIII, God Bless Her!, and Princess, a pictorial biography of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Robert Lacey married Alexandre Avrach, a graphic designer, in 1971. They have three children, Sasha, Scarlett, and Bruno.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Offering a delightful, often astonishing portrait of everyday life in Anglo-Saxon England in the year 1000, this wonderfully earthy chronicle, while timed for the end of this millennium, distinguishes itself from the sea of millennial titles by focusing on the end of the last one. Lacey (Sotheby'sBidding for Class), a popular British historian, and London-based journalist Danziger (The Orchestra) focus on aspects of daily living. The Anglo-Saxons, a practical, self-contained, fervently superstitious people, were 99% illiterate, yet their language would become their most widespread legacy. Bristol was a slave-trading port, and the use of "bondservants" was a basic underpinning of the rural economy (the Norman invasion of 1066 would replace servitude with feudalism). There was no sugar, but honey was so valued that it became a form of currency. Personal hygiene was almost nonexistent, and most adults died in their 40s. Engla-lond, as the country was called, endured the best and the worst of times, enjoying unmatched prosperity but also falling prey to Viking raids, a menace that King Ethelred (the Unready) exacerbated by paying protection money. The narrative is organized in 12 chaptersone for each monthplus a closing chapter assessing the Anglo-Saxon legacy. Prefacing each chapter is a nimble, remarkably modern-looking, secular drawing of laborers' activities reproduced from the Julius Work Calendar, probably created by a cleric working in Canterbury Cathedral around 1020. This is a superb time capsule, and the authors distill a wealth of historical information into brightly entertaining reading. Agent, Curtis Brown. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
An amusing, though lightweight, examination of English life in the year 1000. With millennial fever gripping the publishing world, biographer Lacey (Grace, 1994, etc.) and London Independent journalist Danziger bring us back 1,000 years. Using a variety of sources, including the writings of the Venerable Bede, the Julius Work Calendar, and Beowulf, the authors probe topics as varied as Viking military strategy, coin-making, the Easter feast, and the development of English. It's clear that Christianity permeated almost every aspect of daily life: ``This was an age of faith. People believed as fervently in the powers of saints' bones as many today believe that wheat bran or jogging or psychoanalysis can increase the sum of human happiness.'' Christian monks preserved ancient knowledge by painstakingly transcribing Greek and Roman texts; they also established schools and hospitals. The Church's political power rivaled the state's, as both institutions promoted reverence for authority. Gerbert of Aurillac, the pope sitting in Rome at the millennium, was a ruthless political infighter and a brilliant scholar who helped popularize the abacus. The authors dub him, somewhat glibly, ``the first millennium's Bill Gates.'' The book possesses a wide-ranging, quickly shifting focus that is alternately charming and exasperating. Like hummingbirds, the authors never spend much time on any one subject. For example, they'll begin a chapter by discussing bread-making, then shift to the problems posed by insects, before finishing with the horrors of medieval medicine (leeches, bloodletting, etc.). While they lack the concentrated approach of historians, they're quite entertaining. The book is weakest, however, when it tries to draw parallels between the year 1000 and today. It's more than silly, for example, when they refer to the medicinal herb agrimony as ``the Viagra of the year 1000.'' A diverting and accessible read, though hardly noteworthy scholarship. Like a box of chocolates, it's appetizing fun without much nutritional value. (13 b&w illustrations) (Radio satellite tour)
Booklist Review
To reconstruct an era, capturing the tone and pulse of everyday life, is a highly speculative task, even with the benefit of extensive written and oral history and photographs. In their efforts to describe life in Anglo-Saxon England on the eve of the Norman Conquest, Lacey and Danziger strive to utilize archaeological remains and scraps of legends and written history. The result is a piece of guesswork that often asserts unwarranted conclusions (such as the height and physical health of the populace). Still, their guesses are probably as good as those of more "scientific" historians, and their journey through England and English society is generally fun. Clerics, peasants, nobles, and Viking warriors put in appearances, adding to a rich tapestry of medieval life. This is more of a travelogue than a serious research effort, but it is enjoyable and many of the conclusions are at least plausible. --Jay Freeman
Library Journal Review
Authors Lacey (Grace, LJ 9/1/94; Sotheby's, LJ 5/1/98) and Danziger (of the London Independent) have set out to capture what life was like in Anglo-Saxon England at the end of the first millennium. The framework for their story was provided by a priceless written work from that period, "The Julius Work Calendar." Designed to allow readers to keep track of saints' days, the calendar also includes impressionistic sketches that illustrate the common activities of each month and lines of Latin verse in the form of singsong doggerel to illuminate the activities portrayed in the sketches. The authors make use of the sketches and verse to describe each month's activities and in so doing dispel some popular misconceptions about life in late Anglo-Saxon England. For example, in the England of the year 1000 the forests occupied about as much area as they do today, and Anglo-Saxon women, on average, were taller than modern English women. This popular history should appeal to both the general reader and students of the period and is recommended for public and academic libraries.Robert James Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.