Angles or Angels?

Loved it! An epic series in the making - move over Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons are coming!
Looking forward to more from David Stokes.

A wonderful, sprawling historical epic that pits family loyalties against the good of a kingdom. I’ll admit I love this historical period and thought it was very well researched. (I’m ignoring few language issues – Scotland and Wales for example would both have been speaking what we now call High Welsh, Ireland’s Gaels were speaking Sengoidelc etc) and there were a couple of minor geographic queries which might have been included for ease of story telling (as might the language simplification tbh). Full of engaging characters and tense political intrigue, this was a treat to read.

Well-written story and fully fleshed out characters; looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

In what now is Northumbria in the north of England in 6th century Britain there were two kingdoms: Deira ruled by old king Aele and Bernicia ruled by the young king Æthelfrith. The Romans have left the island two centuries ago and in Deira people do not even remember them and think that the big stone buildings in York are build by giants. Building houses in stone and writing, it is all forgotten. Those areas are populated by immigrants from north Germany called the Angles.


In the West and the North the old British kingdoms and the Picts still prevail with some help from their Gaul cousins in Ireland. Bernicia an Deira are rivals but with the old British kingdoms in Scotland and Wales as enemies who want to overthrow them the two kingdoms must unite. Acha, daughter of one king is chosen to act as ‘peace-weaver’ by marrying the rival leader. But before she can do so Æthelfrith marries a princess from the North who is part Pictish.

I really liked the book. The story is well written and seen from either Acha's, Æthelfrith's or brother Edwin's point of view and we learn a lot of daily life in those days. It is obviously a very well researched novel and at the end the writer takes time to explain what is historically correct to the letter and what parts were invented.

There is one mistake though. Frisia were not island off the coast of Holland. Frisia was and in some extend still is the northern parts of The Netherlands and Germany. Holland was the enemy!

First in a new series on Anglo Saxon Britain this is a well written and researched book you will enjoy reading. One identifies with most of the main characters, and the plot is engaging I recommend for lovers of history or historical fiction