Millennium

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What to expect

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.

Critics Review

An exhilarating sweep across European history either side of the year 1000; riveting
Books of the Year, Spectator
I relished the blood and thunder narrative - the work of a great storyteller at his best
Books of the Year, Evening Standard
Millennium is a superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet of slaughter, sanctity and sex, filled with emperors, whores and monks
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Fast and lively... another blockbuster
Sunday Times
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
Daily Telegraph
A mighty narrative of kings and popes, battles and massacres... A tremendously good read
Sunday Telegraph
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
Independent
Enjoyable and exuberantly argued... storytelling on a magisterial scale
The Economist
Tom Holland is a gifted narrator who covers the field with panache and a rich fund of adjectives
Spectator
Holland has written an original and elegant book
Sunday Business Post
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
Tablet
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
Mail on Sunday
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
Books of the Year, Independent
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
Guardian
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
Guardian
Holland tells a cracking tale, vividly bringing this neglected era of monks, popes, knights and serfs back to life
Tribune

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