After very positive feedback from earlier talks, on 15th January I’ll be giving my next u3a national talk by Zoom. This will follow the Roman ‘colonisation’ of Britain through to the next period, sometimes called ‘the Dark Ages’. I’ll unpick what we know happened, when, how, and possibly why. Whatever else, the immediate post-Roman period heralded another sea change in all levels of society and life in the areas that slowly developed into a recognisable England. For more details for u3a members (or would-be members) see the link below: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/from-roman-britain-to-the-dark-ages-tickets-1968162128909?aff=oddtdtcreator
Meanwhile, after another more local talk on Ice Age to Iron Age, I’ve been polishing up the near final draft of my second book in the series. This is called ‘Conquest to Charter – The Resilience of England’ and follows the same style and format as Ice to Athelstan. It picks up the story through to Athelstan’s successor kings of Wessex and the slide under Aethelred to the Danish conquest of England in 1016, followed just 50 years later by the seismic Norman Conquest. The background and effects of this are considered in some detail before the book moves on to the later Norman kings, the Anarchy in the reign of Stephen, the tumultuous reign of Henry II and his warring wife and sons through to the long reign of Henry III, the establishment of Magna Carta and the development of a working parliament.
I hope this second book will be available by mid-2026, in time for the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry in England, which I consider in some detail in the book! If you’d like to be kept up to date on this, please feel free to drop me a line at author@charlesboundy.com.