Millennium

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

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

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

Fast and lively... another blockbuster

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

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

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

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

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

Holland has written an original and elegant book

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

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

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

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

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

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

** Fast and lively . . . another blockbuster

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

'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

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

Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. His bestselling books include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic , which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire , which won the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom ; In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World ; Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar ; and Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind .

Holland has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics and followed in 2016 by a history of Æthelstan published under the Penguin Monarchs series, and in 2019 Æthelflæd England's Forgotten Founder as a Ladybird Expert Book. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to 'the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome'.

Holland hosts (with Dominic Sandbrook) the no.1 podcast The Rest is History . He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from religion to dinosaurs. He served two years as the Chair of the Society of Authors; as Chair of the PLR Advisory Committee and was on the committee of the Classical Association.

@holland_tom