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Millennium
On sale
18th December 2008
Price: £16.99
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Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781405504560
Of all the civilisations existing in the year 1000, that of Western Europe seemed the unlikeliest candidate for future greatness. Compared to the glittering empires of Byzantium or Islam, the splintered kingdoms on the edge of the Atlantic appeared impoverished, fearful and backward. But the anarchy of these years proved to be, not the portents of the end of the world, as many Christians had dreaded, but rather the birthpangs of a radically new order.
MILLENNIUM is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state. The story of how the distinctive culture of Europe – restless, creative and dynamic – was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times is as fascinating and as momentous as any in history.
MILLENNIUM is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state. The story of how the distinctive culture of Europe – restless, creative and dynamic – was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times is as fascinating and as momentous as any in history.
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Reviews
Holland excels at narration, never jogging when he can gallop... His highly individual road map to the hitherto 'dark ages' is written with forceful - and convincing - panache
Holland has written an original and elegant book
Holland tells a cracking tale, vividly bringing this neglected era of monks, popes, knights and serfs back to life
Holland turns his brilliant narrative spotlight on the so-called 'dark ages' ... Global in reach, this book sweeps thrillingly over the troubled centuries that saw the triumph of Byzantium, the ascent of Islam - and the lingering disaster of the Crusades
A mighty narrative of kings and popes, battles and massacres... A tremendously good read
Enjoyable and exuberantly argued... storytelling on a magisterial scale
Holland's book . . . is big in every sense; and at its heart is a big idea that some may well deem heretical, others - myself included - profoundly imaginative . . . Holland's brilliantly written account of the Canossa incident, and its far-reaching consequences, is typical of the eloquence and historical imagination of the entire book . . . A remarkable book that prompts many reflections on our own day . . . Millennium is both a vastly entertaining read . . . as well as deeply intelligent: it constitutes a major contribution to some of the most crucial issues of our time
An exhilarating sweep across European history either side of the year 1000; riveting
It is perfectly right for Holland to claim a great deal for the eleventh century, of which his book is a splendid, highly coloured canvas
Tom Holland is a gifted narrator who covers the field with panache and a rich fund of adjectives
Millennium is a superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet of slaughter, sanctity and sex, filled with emperors, whores and monks
Holland has a mightily readable style, in which powerful Latinate rhetoric jostles with cheery colloquialism . . . Far more than the stories of Greeks and Romans, this is your history
Millennium ranges far in both time and space yet always returns to its central theme: the right ordering of Christendom... it is a narrative history in the grand manner, written with panache and confidence... A marvellous, enthralling read
I relished the blood and thunder narrative - the work of a great storyteller at his best
Fast and lively... another blockbuster
At last, a book that sheds much-needed light on those 1,000 years between Roman Britain and the Norman conquest that we call the dark ages