This is an ARC review。 Many thanks to Pegasus Books and Edelweiss。I am a self-proclaimed history nerd and nothing gets me to geek out quite as much as British history。 Therefore, I naturally had to jump on the chance to review this one and boy, am I glad I did!Marc Morris has presented readers with a concise, informative, and remarkably readable history of the Anglo-Saxons。 I was hooked from the first page, as Morris's writing style is so conversational and yet educational。 I particularly love t This is an ARC review。 Many thanks to Pegasus Books and Edelweiss。I am a self-proclaimed history nerd and nothing gets me to geek out quite as much as British history。 Therefore, I naturally had to jump on the chance to review this one and boy, am I glad I did!Marc Morris has presented readers with a concise, informative, and remarkably readable history of the Anglo-Saxons。 I was hooked from the first page, as Morris's writing style is so conversational and yet educational。 I particularly love the little historical tidbits and etymology information he includes in the text - he seems to know exactly when all the Aelfgifus and Aethelreds start to cross the eyes and uses those instances to insert information that draws the reader right back in and even helps to discern the historical players on the page。The Anglo-Saxons begins by introducing Roman Britain and its subsequent fall。 It then charts the arrival and dissemination of Anglo-Saxon culture, the rise of Christianity, the Viking assaults, the emergence of "Englishness," and England's evolution up to the Norman Conquest。 It manages to cover all this in such relatively few pages because there is no unnecessarily or superfluous information; every sentence is a valuable one。 Anyone can relate history, but it takes a particularly skilled historian and writer to produce 500-some pages of such engaging content that the reader is hooked on every page。 Even I sometimes find longer history tomes to be monotonous or repetitive (and I read them for fun!), but I did not have anything near that issue with this one。 I honestly think this is one of the best histories I've read in a long time。If you have any interest in the Anglo-Saxons and British history as a whole, don't walk - RUN - to your nearest bookstore on May 4。 And you should probably carve aside a reading day, because I assure you you won't be able to put this one down! 。。。more