The Year 1000 --by R. Lacey & D. Danziger

The Year 1000 What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium – An Englishman's World —by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger

Nonfiction / History, England

240 pages

5 Stars

I truly enjoyed this book. It is not a detailed history, but more a 'History Lite,' of the times and people in the year 1000 in Engla-lond. Based on the Julius Work Calendar, it describes what went on in daily life month by month.

The authors are not historians, but rather journalists who did their homework. Perhaps that is why it is so readable.

The weather was considerably warmer, certain foods were available then, several common ones did not come on the scene for a few hundred years. Many towns and or villages were named with a suffix showing their origin as either English or Norse, and were often interspersed. The towns today carry the same names. Macbeth was a real king who also had better luck of keeping the Vikings out of Scotland than the English had of keeping them out of England.

Armies and battles were to be avoided at all costs, and when they could not be avoided, were relatively quiet. The farmer just a couple miles away would have been totally unaware of it and gone about his business.

Buttons did not yet exist but rudimentary brain surgery did. Dolphins acted as weather forecasters, at least on the coast and there was a recipe for Viagra that long ago;-)

If you want lots of dates and details and facts, just the facts, try another book by an Historian. If you want an enjoyable read with some interesting details, try this one, you'll like it.