Medieval Britain In 100 Facts, by Matthew Lewis

Having read the last few books I have reviewed for the De Re Militari [1] fairly quickly, I thought I would choose for myself a fairly lighthearted read on British Medieval history and was pleased when this book arrived for me to read and review, seeing as it is under 200 pages and thus presents a read that should not be too difficult of a challenge, as well as a certain level of entertainment.  This is the sort of book that does not look to appeal to a scholarly audience, and flipping through it idly I do not see any footnotes or endnotes at all, which means that the book is aimed at an audience that is not concerned with such matters.  Likely this is the sort of book to appeal to someone looking for subject matter to write about for coursework in the subject, or for someone who is fond of medieval history and wants a book to read that will not present too much of a challenge, even if it does not provide a lot of explicit suggestions for future reading.

Looking at the table of contents, which appear to be generally chronologically organized, it is clear that the author wishes to focus on the period of British medieval history between the Norman conquest and the rise of the Tudors, which puts the 100 “facts” generally in a period of slightly more than 400 years, even though the text on the back cover is a bit misleading when it says that the book discusses aspects of the formation of medieval Britain after the Roman exodus.  It is also clear from the titles of the various “facts” that the author wishes to focus on a great deal of Welsh history, and has areas of focus that would be of interest to many readers and will likely be somewhat thought-provoking.  I look forward to reading the book, even though it does not look so far that the book would be geared to a scholarly audience at all.  It appears to have modest aims, and it is worth seeing if it hits those modest aims.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/non-book-review-nottingham-the-buried-past-of-a-historic-city-revealed/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/21/non-book-review-beyond-the-gates-of-fire/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/non-book-review-richard-iii-the-king-in-the-car-park/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/non-book-review-john-de-courcy-prince-of-ulster/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/scholarly-book-reviews/