MILLENNIUM

Bestselling historian and broadcaster Tom Holland gives a thrilling panoramic account of the birth of the new Western Europe in the year 1000 An exhilarating sweep across European history either side of the year 1000 riveting ALLAN MASSIE SPECTATOR I relished the blood and thunder narrative the work of a great storyteller at his best DOMINIC SANDBROOK EVENING STANDARD A splendid highly coloured canvas NORMAN STONE GUARDIAN In AD 900 few would have guessed that the splintering kingdoms of Europe were candidates for future greatness Hemmed in by implacable enemies and an ocean there were many who feared that they were nearing the time when the Antichrist would appear heralding the world s end Instead there emerged a new civilisation It was the age of Otto the Great and William the Conqueror of Viking sea kings of hermits monks and serfs It witnessed the spread of castles the invention of knighthood and the founding of the papal monarchy It was a momentous achievement for this was nothing less than the founding of the modern West