Description

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘A diligent historian and a superb writer’

THE TIMES

A gripping new history of the making of England as a nation.

In December 1642, during the Civil War, Parliamentarian troops stormed Winchester Cathedral and smashed ten beautifully decorated wooden chests to the ground, using the bones inside as missiles to shatter the cathedral’s stained glass windows. Afterwards, the clergy scrambled to collect the scattered remains: the bones of ancient kings, bishops and one formidable queen.

Bestselling historian Cat Jarman builds on the ground-breaking work of forensic archaeologists to lead us through more than a millennium of history. Alongside the cutting-edge investigation to unlock the bones’ secrets, this is a thrilling and sometimes tragic tale. It tells the story of both the seekers and the sought, of those who protected the bones and those who spurned them.

Publisher Review

Praise for River Kings:

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (September 2021)

Waterstones Book of the Month (October 2021)

‘A masterly history … River Kings is a mystery and an adventure, the tale of a quest that took Jarman from Repton to Scandinavia, across the Baltic Sea, over to Baghdad and finally to India. I was held captive … In addition to being a wonderful writer, Jarman is a skilled bioarchaeologist … River Kings is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed. Tiny trills of detail give way to pounding drums of drama’
Gerard deGroot, Times

‘Cat Jarman will transform the way you think about the Vikings’ Dan Snow

‘A bead was discovered in a Viking warrior’s grave, and that discovery led Cat Jarman on an amazing journey which is described in this extraordinary story. That bead, in Cat Jarman’s hands, taught me more about the Vikings than a score of history books. River Kings is an astonishing and compelling triumph!’
Bernard Cornwell

‘Will cast a spell on any reader who enjoys their history well-written and clearly argued. Just as Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad reminded us that the eastern front of WW2 was of far greater consequence than its western theatre, so Jarman shows how the westward trading and slaving voyages of the Vikings were only half the story. The real source of Viking wealth lay far to the east.’ William Dalrymple, FT

‘A thrilling read … Illuminates Viking culture in an utterly intriguing new light’
Charles Spencer

‘An extraordinarily imaginative conjuring of the Viking world … This is not archaeology as dry stones and bones, but as the lived lives of the people of the past brought to life with verve, style and sympathetic imagination. Beautifully written … You’ll never see the Viking Age in the same way again’
Michael Wood