Carola Hicks

What Did the Normans Ever Do For Us?

The Battle of Hastings: The Fall of Anglo-Saxon England

By

Atlantic Books 257pp £17.99 order from our bookshop

A quick scan of the British Library’s catalogue reveals that more than twenty books entitled The Battle of Hastings have been published in recent years, plus several others involving ‘1066’ or ‘Harold II’ – and that’s ignoring anything on the Bayeux Tapestry. Britain’s favourite battle has also been the theme of umpteen television documentaries featuring the Snows or the other Richard Holmes on horseback, surrounded by plucky extras wearing conical helmets. Bearing in mind R Allen Brown’s telling comment that the only undisputed fact about Hastings was that the Normans won, do we need yet another account? 

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