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Millennium by Tom Holland

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Millennium

Publisher
Little, Brown Book Group
Publish Date
12 September 2019
Run Time
17 hours 33 minutes
Format
Audiobook

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What to expect

Bestselling historian and broadcaster Tom Holland gives a thrilling panoramic account of the birth of the new Western Europe in the year 1000

'An exhilarating sweep across European history either side of the year 1000; riveting' ALLAN MASSIE, SPECTATOR

'I relished the blood and thunder narrative - the work of a great storyteller at his best' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, EVENING STANDARD

'A splendid, highly coloured canvas' NORMAN STONE, GUARDIAN

In AD 900, few would have guessed that the splintering kingdoms of Europe were candidates for future greatness. Hemmed in by implacable enemies and an ocean, there were many who feared that they were nearing the time when the Antichrist would appear, heralding the world's end.

Instead there emerged a new civilisation. It was the age of Otto the Great and William the Conqueror, of Viking sea-kings, of hermits, monks and serfs. It witnessed the spread of castles, the invention of knighthood, and the founding of the papal monarchy. It was a momentous achievement: for this was nothing less than the founding of the modern West.

Critics Review

  • An exhilarating sweep across European history either side of the year 1000; riveting

    Books of the Year, Spectator

  • I relished the blood and thunder narrative - the work of a great storyteller at his best

    Books of the Year, Evening Standard

  • Millennium is a superb, fascinating and erudite medieval banquet of slaughter, sanctity and sex, filled with emperors, whores and monks

    Simon Sebag Montefiore

  • Fast and lively... another blockbuster

    Sunday Times

See more reviews
  • Millennium ranges far in both time and space yet always returns to its central theme: the right ordering of Christendom... it is a narrative history in the grand manner, written with panache and confidence... A marvellous, enthralling read

    Daily Telegraph

  • A mighty narrative of kings and popes, battles and massacres... A tremendously good read

    Sunday Telegraph

  • Holland excels at narration, never jogging when he can gallop... His highly individual road map to the hitherto 'dark ages' is written with forceful - and convincing - panache

    Independent

  • Enjoyable and exuberantly argued... storytelling on a magisterial scale

    The Economist

  • Tom Holland is a gifted narrator who covers the field with panache and a rich fund of adjectives

    Spectator

  • Holland has written an original and elegant book

    Sunday Business Post

  • Holland's book . . . is big in every sense; and at its heart is a big idea that some may well deem heretical, others - myself included - profoundly imaginative . . . Holland's brilliantly written account of the Canossa incident, and its far-reaching consequences, is typical of the eloquence and historical imagination of the entire book . . . A remarkable book that prompts many reflections on our own day . . . Millennium is both a vastly entertaining read . . . as well as deeply intelligent: it constitutes a major contribution to some of the most crucial issues of our time

    Tablet

  • Holland has a mightily readable style, in which powerful Latinate rhetoric jostles with cheery colloquialism . . . Far more than the stories of Greeks and Romans, this is your history

    Mail on Sunday

  • Holland turns his brilliant narrative spotlight on the so-called 'dark ages' ... Global in reach, this book sweeps thrillingly over the troubled centuries that saw the triumph of Byzantium, the ascent of Islam - and the lingering disaster of the Crusades

    Books of the Year, Independent

  • It is perfectly right for Holland to claim a great deal for the eleventh century, of which his book is a splendid, highly coloured canvas

    Guardian

  • At last, a book that sheds much-needed light on those 1,000 years between Roman Britain and the Norman conquest that we call the dark ages

    Guardian

  • Holland tells a cracking tale, vividly bringing this neglected era of monks, popes, knights and serfs back to life

    Tribune

User Reviews

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Details

Author
Tom Holland
Narrator
Mark Meadows, Tom Holland
Duration
17 hours 33 minutes
Release Date
12 September 2019
ISBN
9781405541336
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Little, Brown Book Group
Genre
History, General and world history

Synopsis

Bestselling historian and broadcaster Tom Holland gives a thrilling panoramic account of the birth of the new Western Europe in the year 1000'An exhilarating sweep across European history either side of the year 1000; riveting' ALLAN MASSIE, SPECTATOR'I relished the blood and thunder narrative - the work of a great storyteller at his best' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, EVENING STANDARD'A splendid, highly coloured canvas' NORMAN STONE, GUARDIANIn AD 900, few would have guessed that the splintering kingdoms of Europe were candidates for future greatness. Hemmed in by implacable enemies and an ocean, there were many who feared that they were nearing the time when the Antichrist would appear, heralding the world's end. Instead there emerged a new civilisation. It was the age of Otto the Great and William the Conqueror, of Viking sea-kings, of hermits, monks and serfs. It witnessed the spread of castles, the invention of knighthood, and the founding of the papal monarchy. It was a momentous achievement: for this was nothing less than the founding of the modern West.

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