The Bone Chests

by Cat Jarman

From the brilliant bioarchaeologist and bestselling author of River Kings, a gripping new history of the Anglo-Saxons told through six bone chests, stored for over a thousand years in Winchester Cathedral. A book that unlocks the secrets of the pre-Norman past.
In 1642, William Waller and his Parliamentarian army came to Winchester with destruction on their minds. They forced entry to the magnificent cathedral that had stood on the site for over 600 years and began to smash things.

In the cathedral’s holiest place, ten beautiful mortuary chests rested as they’d done since the 7th century. In search for treasure, the soldiers ripped open the lids and when all they found were bones they flung them at the great West Window, destroying the 14th-century stained glass with its sacred images of the Virgin Mary and St Peter. The desecration was total – blood, glass, bayonets, bones all scattered underfoot. The chests housed the mortal remains of West Saxon kings, saints and bishops; of Queen Emma of Normandy, William Rufus, Harthacnut, Edmund Ironside and Edward the Confessor. As the soldiers left, local people picked through the damage, gathering the glass and hiding the bone chests for safekeeping.

Six chests remain today – with a jumble of the original bones. In 2014 they were opened for the first time to anthropologists and archaeologist, photographed and catalogued so that the exact position of each individual item is a matter of record. Since then, cutting edge science, including isotope analysis, carbon dating and DNA analysis has revealed astonishing new insights. In Bone Chests, bestselling author of River Kings, Cat Jarman builds on evidence from these bones of the men and women who witnessed and orchestrated the creation of England, fuelled and fortified by the actions of invading and settling Vikings, to tell an unforgettable new account of this early period of history. This is Anglo-Saxon history in technicolour, with an important revisionist take on the role of women.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Medieval, Historical, Medieval History, Audiobook

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2023

About the author

Cat Jarman, PhD, is a bioarchaeologist and field archaeologist specializing in the Viking Age and Viking women. She uses forensic techniques like isotope analysis, carbon dating, and DNA analysis on human remains to untangle the experiences of past people from broader historical narratives. Dr. Jarman has contributed to numerous television documentaries as both an on-screen expert and historical consultant, including programs for the BBC, History Chanel, Discovery, among others. She lives in Britain.

Reviews

[Verity Halliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bone Chests has a great concept - there are old wooden chests in Winchester Cathedral with pre-Norman Conquest names on them and bones inside. Do the bones match the names? What are the stories of the people inside? Can modern archaeological techniques shine a light on the truth?

I really enjoyed Cat Jarman's previous book about the Vikings, River Kings, and this book is a good follow-on read. I think before reading Jarman's work I was under the impression that the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and the Normans were three completely separate groups of people. But actually, there were centuries of movement and intermarriage between the groups and each group had legitimate claims to rule (at least parts of) England. The residents of these islands were a cosmopolitan bunch around the turn of the first millennium!

A recommended read for lovers of history.

[| M a r v i k k i s | · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4.0 / 5.0] ★★★★✩
Innbundet, Norsk, Biblioteket

[amycw · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought the book would focus more on the attempts to identify the bones, but instead, it was brief histories of historical figures who the bones may belong to. The histories were dry; I just couldn't engage or stay focused on the writing and kept wanting to put the book down. Unless you have a lot of historical knowledge of England before 1066, the historical figures are difficult to keep straight because of the similar names: Aethelwulf, Aethulstan, Aethelwearn, etc.

[E.J. J Doble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superbly interesting study of the Winchester Bone Chests, detailing a fascinating archeological story of England's earliest kings and regents from Anglo-Saxon times. Really well researched, written and narrated, Jarman has a great skill at balancing archaeological nuance with history and implications, while also avoiding any patronising detail or bland excess. Both of Jarman's books have been great, and I will definitely be reading/listening to more when they're released in the future!

[Amanda B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. If you liked the River Kings then you will most likely enjoy this.

A subject that hasn't been widely written about in the popular history books . A lot of the early Saxon & Viking royals were not particularly familiar to me & this book tells the very complex story of who these people in the chests may have been in an entertaining way.

[Jemima Pett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat Jarman does a thorough job of research on these chests, and the people whose remains may or may not be in them. She starts with the earliest known Wessex king, Cynewulf, and ends with the last one named on the chests: William Rufus (son of William the Conqueror). This is not a period of history I know much about. Frankly most GB school history mentions Egyptians, Romans, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, and moves on to the Wars of the Roses. In fact I don’t know whether it does that much, except kids seem to know about Pharoahs, and they spend a lot of time on the history of World War 2.

So a narrative about the kings and politics of pre-1100 has the potential to be interesting. In The Bone Chests, the author takes the supposed contents of one chest at a time, and maps out the who, what, why and wherefore, based on research and records down the ages. The best thing about this book is that it adds in modern science and use of DNA, which is fascinating, revealing as it does where people came from based on their diet and chemical make-up and who they are related to once possible matches have been found in those areas. Like the discovery of Richard III in a Leicester car park, we cannot be 100% certain. But we can be pretty sure that it isn’t anyone else without a huge coincidence involved.

As a result, the book keeps your interest. This is despite some shortcomings, some of which can’t be helped. The number of names that look alike, and in many cases are the same for entirely different people — AEthelstan, AEthelgifu, AElfgifu and all those other Saxon names beginning with AEl…

This was an ARC, so it is possibly not the final version, but I found myself getting confused with the way the author jumped from contemporary to the king under discussion, to contemporary to the Reformation, interspersed with commentary from writers of ages in between. When we were back to later archaeological findings, it seemed fine, but some of the narrative got very confusing. There were also several places where she repeated herself, telling us the same thing twice as if she hadn’t said it before. Some tighter editing would do it the world of good.

There is a good reference section (the last 10%), covering notes as well as extensive bibliography, a list of illustrations (only the drawings of the chests were in my ebook version) and an index, which is pretty redundant in the ebook, but a goldmine for a paper copy–or a reviewer checking name spellings!.

It’s a great hook on which to hang a history of the first millennium in the British Isles, so if you’re remotely interested, take a look. Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for the opportunity to expand my knowledge!

[Olaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cat Jarman writes in a really engaging way, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed with this book.

In her previous work, River Kings, Jarman delves into archaeological and genetic evidence, exploring the methods scholars use to uncover new information about the Viking world. Rather than simply telling the story of the Vikings, she examines developments in the historiography to tell a "new" story about the period.

In this book, however, the bone chests are used merely as a framing device for a pretty straightforward narrative history about the Anglo-Saxon age, with a few asides about Winchester Cathedral thrown in. That interdisciplinary approach is mostly missing, and there's precious little information here that hasn't been written a thousand times before – it's a great missed opportunity.

[Keenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming look into the history (largely royal and military because that's what was written back then) of pre-Norman England, using the Bone Chests in Winchester Cathedral and their famous occupants to anchor the text. The book goes into research efforts to identify the bones using scientific and cross-disciplinary tools, the religious and political outlook of the era, and ultimately what the Isles looked like in a time of constant raiding and invasion and warfare. It's not as science-y as River Kings which makes me prefer the former text, but this was still an insightful and well-written account of a long ago time with a good number of interesting characters.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meticulously researched by an obviously very knowledgeable author, the book could have been much better. This is mainly as there is little context about the country as a whole in the relevant period which is not a well-known period of history. It is mainly a succession of names (many of which are the same or very similar). Also the jumping between time periods didn't make it easy to follow. A very interesting issue and a great idea for a book but, unfortunately it didn't really grab me. (Much better is Janina Ramirez's 'Private lives of saints' where she explains about society and the country so makes it more meaningful).

[Malcolm France · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title and marketing of this book suggests that its focus is a forensic examination of the chests' contents, but this is not so. Most of it is a historical account of England's Anglo-Saxon rulers and kingdoms, which, as a casual reader, I found too detailed.

[Susan Abernethy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. Nice overview of Anglo-Saxon England with recent archeological updates.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be about the bone chests themselves rather than a history of the Anglo-Saxon kings, but alas. Interesting though

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried, I really tried but it was too boring.
It needed some family trees for each section, and more information about who actually was in each chest, if known. The stuff in italics interrupted the flow too.

[Amy Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced, whistle stop tour through all of the monarchs that we really should know more about. It's crazy how we somehow decided that things were only worth learning about from William the Conquerer onwards. Beware of the names, especially on audiobook, as they are all so similar!

[Jennifer Litchfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that is disappointingly less than the sum of its promising parts. The Anglo-Saxon era is a torrid time of warfare, culture and politics, which is still little-understood. And the modern technology that is enabling us to learn more and more about how people lived - through analysing their bones and other artefacts - is fascinating science. The Bone Chests promises an interesting fusion of these two subjects, but fails to deliver.

The confusion caused by the multitude of identical and similar-sounding names (fully half of the women of the period seem to have been called Aelfgifu) is admittedly no fault of the author. But she is responsible for the confusing era-hopping between the times when the bone chests were interacted with by various people, and the irritating use of italics for the chapters detailing these interactions.

As a history of some of the early Wessex rulers and the subsequent kings of England, this is an interesting and clearly well-researched read. This is particularly the case with regards to the discussion of the constant intermigration between Scandinavia and England. But in terms of discourse on the modern science that has been enacted upon the titular bones and chests, this book is sadly lacking.

[Carolann Hambly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this . Having seen them.in rel life it's fascinating to learn their history. On the face of this, I'm planning another trip to Winchester

[Michaela Sommerfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting listen although I think I prefer reading this particular sort of subject physically rather than audibly

[Enfys Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m so glad to have read this before going to visit Winchester. I know what I’m looking for/at now. Fab, engaging, informative read about a mysterious time in history.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good history book, but not what I expected. I felt that the reader was 'sold' an archaeological narrative similar to River Kings which never appeared. However, I'm a huge fan of Jarman and look forward for more. She brings light and a gift for storytelling to late Saxon kingship, which can feel hard to access.

[Benjamin Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read and a slightly different approach to history with osteoarchaelogy thrown in. Covers the English monarchy from the birth of the Wessex kingdom up to the Norman conquest. It doesn’t cover the other kingdoms in England at the time as it’s based around the discovery of the bones at Winchester cathedral but does a glimpse of the interactions with those kingdoms such as battles, treaties and marriage alliances etc.

[Mab · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've found Jarman hard going twice now, and I think it's definitely her not me - she isn't very good at keeping her topics and referents clear. In her first book, the muddled prose mattered less because the content was so fascinating, but this one is a bit ill-conceived - the bone chests sound fascinating, and they're not really dwelt on enough. I thought this would be far more of an investigation, essentially. It's not an awful book, there's lots of interest here, but it's not brilliant.

[Isabel (kittiwake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ceremony itself made a mark. The text spoken on the day by Hincmar in consecrating Judith as a queen is called an ordo, and the words it included are partially preserved. It is special because this was the first ordo recorded for queen-making: there were several in existence for the consecration of a king, but none for a queen. It seems that Hincmar took material he had for the consecration of kings - perhaps even some from Wessex - and compiled his own formula for Judith.
. . .
In fact, the words spoken that day were so significant that some of them were used when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953.

The bone chests in Winchester Cathedral hold the bones of Anglo-Saxon, Danish and early-Norman royalty and bishops, although the skeletons have been ransacked and muddled up in the Reformation and the Civil War.

One of the most interesting parts was a digression into why only 2 near-complete skeletons of soldiers from the Battle of Waterloo have every been dug up. They were either crushed and used for fertiliser, including being exported to England and Scotlans among other places, or used in Belgian factories which filtered suger beet through bone charcoal to make refined white suger.

[Gretchen Bernet-Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book of riveting facts and finds, worthy of ten stars for clear and concise recounting of a pivotal and highly important time in Anglo-Saxon history, in short, part of the foundation of Britain as we know it today. The photographs show amazing finds, tombs and beautiful treasures, often pillaged or brutally destroyed, and some illegally plundered by modern-day scavengers like Powell and Davies who did not declare a hoard of coins and artefacts in Herefordshire valued at more than five million pounds. Under the heading "A Teenage Ruler" young Eadwig (or Edwy) was chosen to become king circa 930 and what a lad he was, forget the kingdom, let's party. Of course, Etheldred and the Vikings crop up, but the most riveting chapters are about the discoveries themselves. On one hand the jumble of amazingly preserved bones in tombs with so much to tell and, on the other, the mystery skull named Giraffe.

On page 308 author Cat Jarman writes "As I look up at the chests (they are stored high up in Winchester Cathedral) I am reminded that I am yet another link in a chain, writing and rewriting this history, this nesting doll of version upon version of events that have a core of truth somewhere, an unreachable real past that we will never quite grasp." But her book certainly brings us closer to the fascinating facts. Perhaps one person who tweaked my comparison to modern day Royals was Queen Eadgyth (Edith) who died in 946. Another book could be written, albeit a mixture of fact and fiction, about her short yet illustrious reign. And then there’s Emma of Normandy (wife of Cnut the Great) who died 1052. I am drifting off the track of the Bone Chests. However, I guess it’s obvious the bones of those mentioned were preserved for hundreds of years and scientifically tested.

There was coffin juggling too, e.g. Glastonbury Abbey powerplay between Edmund’s body and King Cnut (c1016). The early Victorian era needed a national origin story so the Anglo-Saxons were resurrected to denote a racially superior culture but not based on actual historical evidence. The epilogue says "We may ask ourselves why, even today, we are so concerned with finding and identifying the bones of the distant dead?" I'll let you find out the answer to that. Interestingly, author Jarman mentions the 2012 discovery of Richard III bones (found buried in a carpark and instigated by Philippa Langley with the support of the Richard III Society) in great scientific detail but she doesn't sound convinced. Also I found her recounting of Queen Elizabeth II pre-funeral as she lay in state in Westminster Hall rather dismissive, hinting at homeopathically diluted elements of early medieval past. All I can add is people are people and basic human nature lives on regardless. Long live the King!

[Juliet · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting read for those who are interested in early medieval/ Anglo Saxon history. Cat Jarmans writing style is accessible and easy to engage with. It also made me want to visit Winchester Cathedral again!

[Stuart Ramsden · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging history of the known Anglo Saxon kings but very little on the actual identification of the bones .I kept waiting for the evidence - the search and conclusions which is only the last chapter in reality .I feel like other reviewers that this book is sold on the premise of the secrets of the bones and draws analogy with the hunt and identification for Richard in Leicester.This is not that search and this is not that book.I feel this is another clever example of marketing v actual content - the premise would have better to have taken the (story ) of the bones in each chapter and added what actual research has taken place over the years and present that in a meaningful manner - and not a long history of the Anglo Saxons .I have a copy of Anglo Saxon England by Stenton I can read this anytime .This book does however have interesting snippets on the missing treasure ( Viking hoard) from a few years ago and the royal Anglo Saxon tomb in Germany .The bone chests in reality should be a book less than 150 pages and re badged as less unlocking the secrets of the Anglo Saxons and more an updated history with 15 pages of ‘evidence and epilogue’ of what has been excavated and found in Winchester .I have not been to Winchester so in conclusion whilst I am disappointed in the book it has spurred me to plan a visit .

[charlotte, · Rating 4 out of 5]

Galley provuded by publisher

The Bone Chests is a well-researched and compelling nonfiction book, if on occasion I found it a little hard to follow (so many similar sounding names! Though that was hardly Jarman's fault). The period between the departure of the Romans from the British Isles up until 1066 and the Norman Conquest is hardly covered in history lessons (or, at least, not when I was in school), so I only had the vaguest idea about most of what this book contained. Jarman presents it all in a very readable text, one that keeps you fascinated throughout. What's equally fascinating is how much it's possible to discover about the eponymous bone chests through modern methods. Combined with sources from around the time (or, in some cases, a few hundred years after), Jarman pieces together an engrossing story, and one that convinces me to keep an eye on all her output.

[Jo-anne Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Winchester Cathedral sit a set of bone chests, boxes supposed to contain the bones of a series of Anglo-Saxon monarchs. Over the past ten years, archaeologists have used cutting edge techniques to try to discover whose bones these are and in this book Jarman relates the story of these searches alongside the history around each person.
I loved this book as it can be read a a simple history of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy but it is interspersed with wonderful facts about the science of bone dating, mapping injuries and looking for familial links. Then this is also overlaid with stories about the bone chests themselves, from their inception and movement between the churches of Winchester and beyond, to their destruction during the Civil War to more modern tales. Altogether it make for a multi-layered exploration of the subject from a knowledgable writer.

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally appeared on my website at https://www.stuartellisgorman.com/blo...

I really enjoyed Cat Jarman’s River Kings – it takes complex archaeological practices and makes them understandable to general readers while also presenting a different perspective on Viking history than most people will be used to. I was understandably excited when I saw The Bone Chests in my local bookshop – I was hoping for that same marriage of archaeology, science, and narrative. Unfortunately, The Bone Chests left me underwhelmed. It’s not a bad book, but it’s not the book I hoped it would be, nor is it really the book that is promised on the blurb on the back. It’s undermined by its structure and core pitch, and in my mind fails to live up to the potential set by River Kings.

The framing device is six chests in Winchester Cathedral that contain the bones of early medieval English kings, bishops, and a queen. Dr. Jarman has numbered the chests in approximately chronological order – approximately because some of the chests contain multiple skeletons from different centuries, largely the result of some of the chests being destroyed during the English Civil Wars in the 1640s and the bone scattered and later recollected into new chests. Bone Chests takes each numbered chest in order and in theory examines the lives of the people whose skeletons are contained within them.

I say in theory, because in practice The Bone Chests is mostly a chronological narrative history of the royal family of Wessex and the foundation of the Kingdom of England. This is not in itself a bad thing, but readers expecting (based on the publisher’s blurb) a more archaeology focused book examining the contents of the chests, and the analysis of the skeletons therein will be disappointed. This is not strictly Dr. Jarman’s fault, while it is the case that the chests have been opened and are undergoing intense archaeological analysis, that analysis is still far from complete and so it cannot be the sole focus of this book. What I had expected from The Bone Chests was something more like vignettes examining the lives of the individuals in each chest by combining the narrative information we have on the people supposedly buried in them along with what the archaeological evidence of the skeletons inside tells us. Instead, The Bone Chests mixes a history of Winchester (only briefly) with a long form narrative of the royal line of Wessex, carrying on post-conquest up to the death of William Rufus, who is supposedly buried in one of the chests.

There’s plenty of interesting information in The Bone Chests, especially if, like me, you know very little about this period of English history (I’m more of a post-conquest guy). However, the book’s structure really does it no favors. The chests themselves feel entirely superfluous to the narrative and even Winchester only pops up every now and then. This leads to weird experiences like in the chapter that is supposedly on the chest containing Edmund Ironside, the chapter is fifty pages long of which fewer than eight pages actually cover the life of King Edmund. If you came to this book hoping to learn about the people in the chests (or at least who are supposedly in the chest) you will probably be disappointed.

The book also doesn’t really play to Dr. Jarman’s strengths. In River Kings she showed consummate skill in explaining complex archaeological and scientific practices, but The Bone Chests is mostly narrative history drawing from chronicle accounts. She is not incapable in this field, but it is not her strength and given the frequent repetition of old English names this is a particularly tricky narrative, and the writing sometimes lost or confused me. The Bone Chests is at its best when she is explaining the results of archaeological analysis, but all too often these are incongruous in their own way – like the fascinating but slightly bizarre aside about the discovery of Richard III’s body and the studies done on it.

I didn’t dislike The Bone Chests, but I was disappointed by it, and I wouldn’t recommend it. There are worse books you can read, but there are also much better ones.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

My knowledge of the Anglo-Saxons from school history lessons is very basic – little more than Alfred the Great on the run from the Vikings and letting the cakes burn, and King Canute, sitting in his throne placed at the water’s edge and trying unsuccessfully to forbid the waves from advancing and wetting his feet.

So I was looking forward to learning more in The Bone Chests: Unlocking the Secrets of the Anglo-Saxons. In her Author’s Note Cat Jarman clarifies that her intention with this book is to tell the stories of the chests, and of the tumultuous times that they and the people interred in them, lived through. She has concentrated on the south and south-west of England to consider why Wessex and Winchester took on such significance in the history of England in the early medieval period. So, the main emphasis in this book is on the history, on the kings and politics of the period rather than on the forensic archaeology and the modern scientific techniques.

Having said that there is enough about the use of DNA and isotopic analysis of teeth to investigate the diet and origins of the owners of the bones for me as a non scientist to understand. I found it all fascinating even though in places I was left wondering what century I was in, having moved from the 11th to the 21st century (when Richard III’s remains were discovered under a Leicester car park), via various Viking raids and the 17th century. At times I had to keep reminding myself which chest was being described.

The mortuary, or bone chests, themselves, are most interesting and I would love to visit Winchester Cathedral to see them for myself. There are six chests, painted wooden caskets which are displayed high on stone screen walls on either side of the high altar area. The bones are the remains of many kings and bishops who were originally buried in the Anglo-Saxon cathedral known as Old Minster, north of the present cathedral.

Jarman describes the chests in, vaguely, chronological order and has relied on the Mortuary Chests Project, a research project led by archaeologists from Bristol University in collaboration with Winchester Cathedral that began in 2012. She is not involved in the Project but has incorporated details of the team’s partial results released in May 2019 in her book.

The book is very detailed and well researched and I learned so much, bringing the medieval period to life as I read. I had never heard of Queen Emma and the details about her life stand out for me. She was the daughter of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, wife of two Anglo- Saxon kings – Æthelred the Unready and Cnut (Canute) – and the mother of Edward the Confessor and Harthacnut of Denmark. She was given the name Ælfgifu and in 1017 she married Cnut. I was fascinated to read that the Project team has put together a set of bones that they confidently determine to be a female that could be the body of Emma.

The last section of the book is made up of Notes of the sources used, an extensive Bibliography, and an Index. There is also a List of Illustrations; the illustrations were not included in my review copy.

[George Rolls · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Winchester Cathedral, there are six mortuary chests containing sets of bones of some amazingly significant people in England’s history. In this book, archeologist Cat Jarman uses these Bone Chests and the people potentially contained therein as a framing narrative for a brief history of early medieval England. Focusing on the Kingdom of Wessex as it emerges from the foggy post-Roman world, as it transitions to the dominant power on this here island to become the Kingdom of England, right up to the Norman conquest (and a little bit beyond).

The Anglo-Saxon era, specifically in Wessex, has a special place in my heart. I grew up (and still live) not far from Winchester, the old capital, where the bone chests lie, so on paper this book should be right up my street. I knew vaguely that the remains of dead kings* lay in Winchester, but not much more.

*Including notably several from the House of Wessex, and Cnut – the Danish viking who conquered England 50 years before William, whose example of defying legitmacy proved that you didn’t have to be related to the royal family to be king of England- and his Queen Emma, whose Norman blood made William’s claim possible.

The Bone Chests has a intriguing premise. The six chests which remain (of an original ten) contain several sets of people’s bones. They are all jumbled up because of historical shenanigans. However, in this quite brief book, Jarman’s investigations into whose bones could actually be in each chest, is disappointly briefer.

She is more interested in giving quite a surface level history of the period, which doesn’t tell you anything new if you already have some knowledge of it. The best parts are when Jarman really gets into the archeology of which she is an expert. The way that bones, and particularly teeth, can be analysed to tell a story about where the deceased might have come from and what they might have eaten.

I came away not being wholly clear about the full list of figures who may or may not be in the bone chests, and a relatively fractured (if you’ll pardon the pun) understanding of what happened to the various remains throughout history. As I say, the bone chests are used more as a kind of framing narrative to tell a fairly pedestrian history of Anglo-Saxon England, which is the weakest part of the book. Parts which were relegated to the margins like the development of Winchester Cathedral at the expense of other churches on the same site, also felt more interesting than Jarman gave them credit for.

That said, it’s not a bad book, but it is for me quite disappointing. More for the what could have been out of a fascinating premise. Nevertheless, I am practically itching to get back to Winchester Cathedral to look upon the bone chests myself, having never noticed them before…

On a side note, I listened to the audiobook for this, which is read by Jarman herself. Who according to the internet is Norwegian, though I could not tell from her impeccable English accent!