Bøger af Ed West

A riveting account of the most consequential year in English history, marked by bloody conflict with invaders on all sides.

'West puts the battle in its historical context, and shows how it set the course of history for more than a thousand years.' Piers Paul Read732.The future of Europe is held in the balance.A Frankish force, assembled at speed, ready themselves to resist an army from the largest empire the world has ever seen.The Franks and Arabs give battle, between the cities of Poitiers and Tours.Would France become part of the sophisticated Muslim world to the south, or remain in the control of the Christian barbarians?The battle proves bloody, a clash of arms and civilisations.With the west lying in ruins after the fall of Rome, Charles Martel's victory would become the defining battle of the age, leading a chronicler soon after to describe the defenders by a new term -'Europeans'.In this gripping and informed account Ed West records the rise of the Islamic Empire, the emergence of the Franks in the ashes of Rome, and the events leading to the fateful day when Europe's future was decided close to the river Loire.Ed West is an author, journalist and blogger who has written for the Daily Telegraph, Catholic Herald, Evening Standard, The Times, Daily Express, Standpoint and the Spectator. He wrote a regular blog first for the Daily Telegraph and later for the Spectator, described by Peter Oborne as 'one of the most interesting of the rising generation of political writers'. He is also the author of a number of history books, the latest of which, Iron, Fire and Ice, looks at the historical inspiration for Game of Thrones.

A witty and concise look at the beginnings of English history, when the nation consolidated after clashes between the Saxons and invading Vikings--now in paperback! In 871, three of England's four kingdoms were overrun by Vikings, the ruthless, all-conquering Scandinavian raiders who terrorized early medieval Europe. With the Norsemen murdering one king with arrows and torturing another to death by ripping out his lungs, the prospects that faced the kingdom of Wessex were bleak. Worse still, the Saxons were now led by a young man barely out of his teens who was more interested in God than fighting. Yet within a decade Alfred-the only English king known as the Great-had driven the Vikings out of half of England, and his children and grandchildren would unite the country a few years later. This period, popular with fans of television shows such as Vikings and The Last Kingdom, saw the creation of England as a nation-state, with Alfred laying down the first national law code, establishing an education system and building cities.Saxons vs. Vikings also covers the period before Alfred, including ancient Britain, the Roman occupation, and the Dark Ages, explaining important historical episodes such as Boudicca, King Arthur, and Beowulf. Perfect for newcomers to the subject, this is the second title in the new A Very, Very Short History of England series. If you're trying to understand England and its history in the most informative and entertaining way possible, this is the place to start.

Exploring why conservatives have lost almost every political argument since 1945, Ed West looks at this endless litany of failure from the perspective of one of the losers, in a semi-autobiographical, self-deprecating way.