1066: The Year of the Three Battles

It's been a long time since I've been this thrilled by a history. McLynn provides the perfect combination of readability and real in-depth historical analysis: 1066 is a bit more comprehensive than a popular history book but is not so dryly scholarly that it's boring. Other reviewers mentioned that the book is at times difficult to get through, but that was not my experience at all. McLynn's treatment of the Battle of Stamford Bridge and The Battle of Hastings were so engaging I couldn't put it down! McLynn's other works are now high on my to-read list.

As another reviewer mentioned, family trees and maps would have been nice. On the other hand, it's not hard to find the information online and print yourself cheat sheets to keep in the book. I highly recommended 1066 if you are interested in the political goings on that led to the end of Anglo-Saxon England and Norman Conquest. ( )

If you can get through the first 190 pages (of 230) it's somewhat interesting. No joke. This is a slog. McLynn's writing is straightforward enough, but the book suffers mightily from a lack of maps and family trees. There are dozens of different characters, all interelated, with tough-to-pronounce names. Often I forgot about whom I was reading.

And for a book subtitled "The Year of Three Battles" there is very little detail about the battles themselves. Instead, the book focuses on all the wheeling and dealing that caused the four main characters to confront one another in 1066.

Hardly a beginners look at the Norman conquest. McLynn seems to have some very compelling new arguments, but unless you're very familiar with this part of history already avoid this book. ( )

A bit hard to get thru