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Strong Land and a Sturdy England in the Middle Ages

Recounts the main events of English history, and profiles prominent personalities, between the Norman Conquest and the mid-fifteenth century

128 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

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About the author

Richard Barber

163 books32 followers
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Richard William Barber is a prominent British historian who has been writing and publishing in the field of medieval history and literature ever since his student days. He has specialised in the Arthurian legend, beginning with a general survey, Arthur of Albion, in 1961, which is still in print in a revised edition. His other major interest is historical biography; he has published on Henry Plantagenet (1964) and among his other books is the standard biography of Edward the Black Prince, Edward Prince of Wales and Aquitaine. The interplay between history and literature was the theme of The Knight and Chivalry, for which he won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1971 and he returned to this in The Holy Grail: Imagination and Belief (2004); this was widely praised in the UK press, and had major reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post.

His other career has been as a publisher. In 1969 he helped to found The Boydell Press, which later became Boydell & Brewer Ltd, one of the leading publishers in medieval studies, and he is currently group managing director. In 1989, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, in association with the University of Rochester, started the University of Rochester Press in upstate New York. The group currently publishes over 200 titles a year.

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33 reviews
August 28, 2021
A Strong Land and a Sturdy is well-written and enjoyable. Those seeking a short introduction to England in the Middle Ages would enjoy this book; readers already familiar with medieval history might find it a bit basic. It does not follow a chronological structure. Instead, Barber divides his chapters thematically. I personally preferred this structure for an introductory overview of medieval times. One of my favorite features of this book is that it is beautifully decorated with many color and black-and-white pictures of art, buildings, and items from the Middle Ages.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review