Millennium (Paperback)

'** Fast and lively ... another blockbuster' Jenny Diski, SUNDAY TIMES ** A mighty narrative of kings and popes, battles and massacres ... A tremendously good read' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH MAGAZINE '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' Sue Arnold GUARDIAN 'Holland tells a cracking tale, vividly bringing this neglected era of monks, popes, knights and serfs back to life' David Sinclair, TRIBUNE 'Holland is a vigorous, fluent, and selectively will-informed writer. He has gifts of imagination and sensitivity to text and mood' Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, THE TIMES 'A tremendously good read, which will no doubt gain more accolades and many more readers' Noel Malcolm, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Holland's brightness and clarity makes this account of the year 1000 exceptionally pleasing' SCOTSMAN 'Millennium ranges far in both time and space yet always returns to its central theme: the right ordering of Christendom. It is narrative history in the grand manner, written with the panache and confidence we associate with the great historians of the 18th and 19th centuries. Holland's research has been prodigious... It is a marvellous, enthralling read, and gives a lively sense of these turbulent centuries that were so crucial in the making of western civilisation. Read it, and be thrilled, amazed and enlightened' Allan Massie, DAILY TELEGRAPH ** 'Mind-boggling... wry humour and thrilling tale-telling' THE TIMES ** 'A fast and lively lesson in that period which school so often misses out... another blockbuster' Jenny Diski, SUNDAY TIMES 'It is perfectly right for Holland to claim a great deal for the 11th century, of which his book is a splendid, highly coloured canvas' Norman Stone, GUARDIAN "A tremendously good read, which will no doubt gain more accolades and many more readers' Noel Malcolm, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'As a stirring, vivid and formidably learned analysis of the events surrounding the Millennium, this will hardly be equalled. Extraordinary insights and lapidary phrases abound' Murrough O'Brien, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Holland excels at narration, never jogging when he can gallop, using generous quotations to convey the mind-set of centuries hagridden with millennial rumours of the end of the world. His highly individual road map to the hitherto 'dark ages' is written with forceful - and convincing - panache' Christina Hardyment, INDEPENDENT

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 birth pangs 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 hist! ory.