Empires of the Normans

'Powerful' The Economist'Fascinating, panoramic . . . Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy' Helen Castor, bestselling author of She Wolves'Narrated with pace, clarity, authority and style, Roach's book is a bracing tour of the world that the Normans made their own' Thomas Williams, bestselling author of Viking Britain'A fresh retelling . . . written with enthusiasm and brio' Marc Morris, bestselling author of The Anglo-SaxonsHow did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East?It is a tale of ambitious adventures and fierce freebooters, of fortunes made and fortunes lost. The Normans made their influence felt across all of western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land. In Empires of the Normans we discover how they combined military might and political savvy with deeply held religious beliefs and a profound sense of their own destiny. For a century and a half, they remade Europe in their own image, and yet their heritage was quickly forgotten - until now.

From Viking raiders to rulers of the Mediterranean, the Normans dominated and dazzled medieval Europe. In this fascinating, panoramic account, Levi Roach brings an expert eye and page-turning energy to the telling of their extraordinary story, Narrated with pace, clarity, authority and style, Roach's book is a bracing tour of the world that the Normans made their own, A fresh retelling of the story of the Normans, across all their theatres of operation - academically up-to-the-minute, sound in its judgements, and written with enthusiasm and brio, How the Normans shaped the Europe we live in today is a huge and gripping subject, brilliantly illuminated here in all its continent-wide human drama by a masterful historian and story-teller, Informed by the latest research, Roach reveals the history of the Norman conquests - from England to the Holy Land - in a pacy and character-driven account of a people who defined an era

Dr Levi Roach is a lecturer at the University of Exeter. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, before completing his PhD at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. He is the author of Æthelred the Unready, winner of the Longman-History Today Prize and the Labarge Prize.