No single recent enterprise has done more to enlarge and deepen our understanding of one of the most critical periods in English history. ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL Anglo-Norman Studies, published annually and containing the papers presented at the Battle conference founded by R. Allen Brown, is established as the single most important publication in the field (as a glance at bibliographies of the period will confirm), covering not only matters relating to pre- and post-Conquest England and France, but also the activities and influences of the Normans on the wider European, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern stage. Among other subjects, this year's articles look at Norman architecture and its place in north-west European art; shipping and trade between England and the Continent; Dudo of St Quentin; and castles and garrisons.

Investigation of the growing regional power of the English aristocracy in the central middle ages. The period between the late tenth and late twelfth centuries saw many changes in the structure and composition of the European and English aristocracy. One of the most important is the growth in local power bases and patrimonies at the expense of wider property and kinship ties. In this volume, the author uses the organisation of aristocracy in East Anglia as a case-study to explore the issue as a whole, considering the extent to which local families adopted national and European values, and investigating the role of local circumstances in the formulation of regional patterns and frameworks. The book is interdisciplinary in approach, using anthropological, economic and prosopographical research to analyse themes such as marriage and kinship, social mobility, relations between secular and ecclesiastical lords, ethnic groups, and patterns of economic growth amongst social groupings; there is a particular focus too on how different landscapes - fenland, upland, coastal and urban - affected the pattern of aristocratic experience. Dr ANDREW WAREHAM is a Research Associate at the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King'sCollege London.

A series which is a model of its kind EDMUND KING, HISTORY The contributions collected in this volume demonstrate the full range and vitality of current work on the Anglo-Norman period in a variety of disciplines. They begin with Elisabeth van Houts' Allen Brown Memorial Lecture, which makes a major contribution to understanding the culture of early tenth-century Normandy. A number of essays deal illuminatingly with monastic culture (both male and female) and with associated literary production, from the making ofthe famous Worcester cartularies to new insights into the cultural world of forgery. Reading in the monastic refectory, the high-quality of female monastic administration, the history of charters for lay beneficiaries in the kingdom of Scots, attitudes to women and power, and an exciting article on the nature of maritime communities on both sides of the Channel also feature, and there is a provocative and fascinating comparison of Henry II's and FrederickBarbarossa's respective treatments of their families. David Bates is Professorial Fellow, University of East Anglia. Contributors: Ilya Afanasyev, Mathieu Arnoux, Robert F. Berkhofer III, Laura Cleaver, Matthew Hammond, Elisabeth van Houts, Susan M. Johns, Catherine Letouzey-Réty, Alheydis Plassmann, Sigbjørn Olsen Sønnesyn, Andrew Wareham, Teresa Webber, Emily A. Winkler.

For more than forty years Nicholas Brooks has been at the forefront of research into early medieval Britain. In order to honour the achievements of one of the leading figures in Anglo-Saxon studies, this volume brings together essays by an internationally renowned group of scholars on four themes that the honorand has made his own: myths, rulership, church and charters. Myth and rulership are addressed in articles on the early history of Wessex, AthelflA|d of Mercia and the battle of Brunanburh; contributions concerned with charters explore the means for locating those hitherto lost, the use of charters in the study of place-names, their role as instruments of agricultural improvement, and the reasons for the decline in their output immediately after the Norman Conquest. Nicholas Brooks's long-standing interest in the church of Canterbury is reflected in articles on the Kentish minster of Reculver, which became a dependency of the church of Canterbury, on the role of early tenth-century archbishops in developing coronation ritual, and on the presentation of Archbishop Dunstan as a prophet. Other contributions provide case studies of saints' cults with regional and international dimensions, examining a mass for St Birinus and dedications to St Clement, while several contributions take a wider perspective, looking at later interpretations of the Anglo-Saxon past, both in the Anglo-Norman and more modern periods. This stimulating and wide-ranging collection will be welcomed by the many readers who have benefited from Nicholas Brooks's own work, or who have an interest in the Anglo-Saxon past more generally. It is an outstanding contribution to early medieval studies.

For more than forty years Nicholas Brooks has been at the forefront of research into early medieval Britain. In order to honour the achievements of one of the leading figures in Anglo-Saxon studies, this volume brings together essays by an internationally renowned group of scholars on four themes that the honorand has made his own: myths, rulership, church and charters. Myth and rulership are addressed in articles on the early history of Wessex, AthelflA|d of Mercia and the battle of Brunanburh; contributions concerned with charters explore the means for locating those hitherto lost, the use of charters in the study of place-names, their role as instruments of agricultural improvement, and the reasons for the decline in their output immediately after the Norman Conquest. Nicholas Brooks's long-standing interest in the church of Canterbury is reflected in articles on the Kentish minster of Reculver, which became a dependency of the church of Canterbury, on the role of early tenth-century archbishops in developing coronation ritual, and on the presentation of Archbishop Dunstan as a prophet. Other contributions provide case studies of saints' cults with regional and international dimensions, examining a mass for St Birinus and dedications to St Clement, while several contributions take a wider perspective, looking at later interpretations of the Anglo-Saxon past, both in the Anglo-Norman and more modern periods. This stimulating and wide-ranging collection will be welcomed by the many readers who have benefited from Nicholas Brooks's own work, or who have an interest in the Anglo-Saxon past more generally. It is an outstanding contribution to early medieval studies.

Annual volume of recent research on all aspects of the Norman World. Papers on English and Norman history from the early eleventh to the early thirteenth centuries: castles and monasteries, ecclesiastical administration and missionary activity, attitudes of the aristocracy, Domesday and Textus Roffensis

A series which is a model of its kind EDMUND KING, HISTORY A particular area of interest in this volume is the landscape and economy of late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England, with papers on castles, deer parks, marshlands, fisheries, and taxation. Two complementary papers discuss neglected aspects of the Bayeux Tapestry: gesture, and the representation of identity and status. Other papers survey the deaths of kings, the role of the Norman vicomte, the estates of the king's wife in Anglo-Saxon England, and lay piety. John Gillingham's Allen Brown Memorial Lecture considers right conduct in battle. C.P. Lewis is Reader in History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Contributors: JOHNGILLINGHAM, STEPHEN CHURCH, MARK GARDINER, ALBAN GAUTIER, MARK HAGGER, RYAN LAVELLE, MICHAEL LEWIS, ANDREW LOWERRE, GALE OWEN-CROCKER, HUGH THOMAS, HIROKAZU TSURUSHIMA, ANDREW WAREHAM, XIANG DONG WEI.