Dark Earth

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Dark Earth (2022, HarperCollins Publishers Limited)

English language

Published Feb. 12, 2022 by HarperCollins Publishers Limited.

ISBN:
9780008209247

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4 stars (1 review)

5 editions

Historical fiction from an unusual perspective

4 stars

The Dark Ages in England are called that because there is almost no contemporary written evidence about that era. Between the time the Roman legions left this island to attend to matters closer to home, and the rise of Saxon power a few centuries later, almost everything we know has been gleaned from archeological evidence or much later writing.

So you'd think this would be an ideal period for speculative fiction writers to write about, as you could build a vivid and plausibe world based upon the few known facts. But actually very little fiction is set in that period.

Rebecca Stott's novel is one of those that is. Inspired by the hard real-world archeological evidence of a Saxon brooch found in the depths of unoccupied post-Roman Londinium, she conjures up a tale of what life might have been like for people who lived on the banks of the Thames …