Published in 1979 in hardback with dustjacket by Croom Helm, this 182 page book on 'The Saxon Age: Commentaries of an Era' by A. F. Scott presents a vivid portrait of the daily life of Saxon England.
Using the first hand evidence of contemporary writers, artists and craftsmen, the book conveys the mood and style of the Saxons from the royal court to the peasant's hut.
A wealth of information is offered, extending over 500 years. Chronologically presented, many diverse aspects of life are covered - towns, family, education, the arts, sports and pastimes, health, work and wages, religion, law and crime, historic events, warfare and happening on the sea.
The illustrations have been carefully selected both for their relation to the text and for their own intrinsic value, and they exemplify the life of the period at every level. Here is constant change: Vikings, Saxons, marauders, settlers and slaves; the Church established, St. Columba, St. Augustine, the Venerable Bede, King Alfred the Great defeating the Danes and the scattered regions becoming a kingdom.
While the Saxon Age is a valuable book of reference, it also makes compelling reading as a vivid and entertaining account of popular life.
About the author: A. F. Scott graduated from Cambridge University in English and History. He was Headmaster of Kettering Grammar School and Senior Lecturer in English at Borough Road College of Education, London. He has authored numerous scholarly works including this present series on the social history of Britain covering over 2000 years from 55BC to 1837. Already published: The Stuart Age; The Plantagenet Age; also the Tudor, Norman and Roman ages.
