Britain After Rome, Robin Fleming
Britain After Rome is a rather exhaustive, not to say exhausting, history of Britain after the Romano-British period. It focuses on material culture like grave goods and excavations, rather than the texts and what we think we know. Sometimes these contradict each other, and sometimes they fit together in illuminating ways; Fleming takes her time unpacking both situations. It results in a broader look at society than we might see elsewhere, including the lives of women and the fashions of clothing, as well as the big questions of politics, commerce and religion. (Not that the role of women is a small question, but it’s one about which we know less.)
I did enjoy reading it, but I had to take it in little parcels rather than sitting down to read right through. Despite the avoidance of extensive footnotes, it feels scholarly, dense, lengthy. There’s a lot of material and some of it is lingered over very lovingly.
I’m fascinated by Britain both before and after Rome so this looks awesome.
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I do recommend this then!
Ooooh. This is the period I have always been most interested by, because we’re so fast to force interpretations on the evidence. Sounds like I should look this one up when I have the stomach for some non-fiction.
I would definitely recommend this over Francis Pryor’s work. It felt like a lot of work to get through the whole thing, but there were some really fascinating bits.