The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom

by David A. Woodman

From one of today’s leading historians of the early medieval period, an enthralling chronicle of Æthelstan, England’s founder king whose achievements of 927 rival the Norman Conquest of 1066 in shaping Britain as we know it

The First King of England is a foundational biography of Æthelstan (d. 939), the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the “kingdom of the English.” In this panoramic work, David Woodman blends masterful storytelling with the latest scholarship to paint a multifaceted portrait of this immensely important but neglected figure, a man celebrated in his day as much for his benevolence, piety, and love of learning as he was for his ambitious reign.

Set against the backdrop of warring powers in early medieval Europe, The First King of England sheds new light on Æthelstan’s early life, his spectacular military victories and the innovative way he governed his kingdom, his fostering of the church, the deft political alliances he forged with Europe’s royal houses, and his death and enduring legacy. It begins with the reigns of Alfred the Great and Edward the Elder, Æthelstan’s grandfather and father, describing how they consolidated and expanded the “kingdom of the Anglo-Saxons.” But it was Æthelstan who would declare himself the first king of all England when, in 927, he conquered the viking kingdom at York, required the submission of a Scottish king, and secured an annual tribute from the Welsh kings.

Beautifully illustrated and breathtaking in scope, The First King of England is the most comprehensive, up-to-date biography of Æthelstan available, bringing a magisterial richness of detail to the life of a consequential British monarch whose strategic and political sophistication was unprecedented for his time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Biography, Medieval, Audiobook

344 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Krystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Narrated by Julian Elfer
Presented by Highbridge Audio

DNF @ 56%

I heard more about DIPLOMAS and COINS than the actual subject of this book.

Halfway through, and I couldn't tell you a single thing about this man.

This is dull and dry and talks more about the way information is gathered rather than presenting any kind of interesting narrative. It's so concerned with giving the source of the information that it forgets to actually tell any of the story. I was tuning out from the beginning, and persisted way longer than I should have.

The narrator does an okay job, given the dull content, but it still all just sounds like getting stuck in a conversation with someone who is passionate about something incredibly dull and not knowing how to get out of it. You're nodding along but really your mind is thinking, 'Is he going to say anything I understand? Is there a point to all this superfluous information? Is it going to stop? Am I going to be here til dinnertime? What am I going to have for dinner? Did I remember to pull the meat out of the freezer? What show am I going to watch tonight? Is Stranger Things Season 5 out yet? ...' I did a lot of thinking about everything other than this audiobook.

Maybe history buffs will appreciate this more - particularly the scholarly type that derive joy from boring facts about historical legal sources. This was absolutely not my cup of tea at all.

With thanks to NetGalley for an audio ARC

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read a comical book about the kings of England following William I but, I wondered, who came before that - Vikings, clans, Iceni ... and here was Æthelstan, who I'd barely heard of who united the parts of England under his rule.

I knew even less about England before 1066 except that various clans held sway in different parts of the country and where I live was under Danelaw on and off for centuries. Æthelstan, it transpires, managed to negotiate his way into the top job - apparently by clever marriages, bribery and some killing.

His story is not as bloody as I expected. Knowing later kings' penchants for starting wars with ... well just about everyone ... Æthelstan had a pretty bloodless rise to the top. In fact, quite a lot of the book is extremely dull.

It would be a boon to those studying this part of history as it is very detailed. It wasn't what I was expecting though and, perhaps, the reason that I didn't know Æthelstan was because there weren't great battles. I confess that there is a massacre which I barely noticed. Mea culpa.

I listened to the audiobook, which was well narrated by Julian Elfer who has a good, clear voice and didn't overly dramatise anything. Just the way I like it.

Thankyou to Netgalley and RB Media for the audio advance review copy.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First King of England is a biography of Æthelstan, a 10th century king who consolidated power in the British Isles to begin to create an England we recognize in history. Prior to Æthelstan, Anglo-Saxon England (410CE-1066CE) consisted of smaller kingdoms, with varying power and foreign ties to the Danes, Vikings, and Germans. While Alfred the Great (d. 899) is perhaps better known (because he commissioned biographers), Woodman argues that Æthelstan (d. 939) is the king responsible for the foundations of an "English" identity.

The Early Middle Ages captured my academic imagination in college exactly because of the shifts in power from the Roman Empire to more dispersed kingdoms previously occupied by Rome. It's a time where local identity and culture begin to take more precedent, and Christianity takes a stronger foothold throughout Europe. I picked up the First King of England because I've been out of the academic side of this era for twenty years at this point, and I had not heard of Æthelstan. I've been reading a fair amount of fiction set in the High Middle Ages recently, and thought I could find something interesting shifting back to an earlier era.

This book is *dry*. I do not think the audience is the casual history lover. I found it to be full of interesting facts and a lot of information about Æthelstan and his family, but presented in a factual manner of names and dates rather than historical trends. It may be the most expansive and complete biography of Æthelstan, leaning on many primary and medieval secondary sources, but unless you are specifically looking for books about kings of the Early Middle Ages, this isn't likely a book for you.

I listened to the audiobook, which may actually have hindered my enjoyment not because the narration isn't good, but because the prose style is less suited to narration. The print copy is illustrated, and it may also be helpful to see the names of the major players written out, as Æthelstan and his family all have similar sounding names. (This is typical of an era where a name connected one to a family, but also creates an interesting mystery for historians to unravel when people went by potentially multiple names and many records are long gone.)

I don't regret reading this book: I learned plenty about early 10th century England and think that Woodman presented a strong thesis, but it's not the style of writing I find personally engaging for learning history.

Thank you to Highbridge Audio for an ALC. The First King of England is out 11/25/25.

[History Today]

Tucked into a corner of the north aisle of Malmesbury Abbey is the tomb of the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelstan. Installed some five centuries after the king’s death, the tomb is a fine, if unremarkable, example of 14th-century funerary sculpture featuring a generic royal effigy atop an unadorned chest. Yet all is not as it seems. The tomb is – and perhaps always has been – empty. It was designed as an object of veneration, a way of creating an image of the king and calling it memory, in the hope of establishing a new royal cult. Æthelstan himself is nowhere to be found.

The paradoxical quality of Æthelstan’s tomb captures the challenges confronting his would-be biographers. His significance as a historical figure is undeniable: his conquest of Northumbria and the submission of the kings of Wales, Scotland, and Strathclyde made him both the first king of a unified England, and, in his own words, ‘king of the whole of Britain’; his victory at the Battle of Brunanburh in 937 was among the most significant English military successes of the pre-Conquest period; and his patronage of the Church laid the foundation for the ecclesiastical reform movement of the mid-tenth century. Nonetheless, as David Woodman writes in his splendid new biography, ‘working from the patchy, jaundiced, and stereotypical nature of the surviving sources, it is notoriously difficult to know anything about Æthelstan the man’. We know Æthelstan as a reputation, but not as a person. No contemporary life of Æthelstan survives and we have only scattered details regarding his childhood, the conditions under which he acceded to the throne, his manner of rule, and the circumstances of his death and burial. The few scraps we do know of his life derive primarily from the works of William of Malmesbury, writing nearly 200 years later. Even such basic matters as the chronology of his reign remain subject to controversy. A conventional narrative biography would be impossible.

Read the rest of the review at https://www.historytoday.com/archive/...

Andrew Rabin is Professor of English at the University of Louisville.

[Vince M · Rating 3 out of 5]

David Woodman, in his new and exhaustively authoritative biography of the 10th Century English king Æthelstan, argues that "the year 927, when Æthelstan first formed England, should be as recognizable as 1066, the date when England was undone". Bold words, surely, for even most Americans living under television-controlled rocks have heard of 1066, but there's at least a strong case for Æthelstan's induction into the Mount Rushmore of English monarchs (and no I won't take any gob or smack from you Harthacnut truthers).

Even looking beyond the 927 annexation of Northumbria from the Vikings, Æthelstan proved a healthy ruler in his patronage of religious and intellectual institutions, his subjugation of the peripheral sub-kings of Britain, and his influence in continental European politics and marriages. It is telling that the unified England fell prey to Viking invasion soon after Æthelstan's death, not for any reason of a fragile kingdom but because it took a certain kind of man to hold such a vast territory under the sway of one banner (the kingdom eventually recovered under the leadership of King Edgar the Peaceful).

Guided by the pleasant but often biased William of Malmesbury, as well as a plethora of land grants, legal codes, and royal assembly witness lists, Woodman painstakingly recreates the minutiae of Æthelstan's reign. It's excruciating at times and makes for a much longer reading than the 211 pages of text might seem to offer.

It could be argued that Æthelstan simply carried on the mission of his father and grandfather, Edward the Elder and Alfred the Great, respectively, in expanding the Kingdom of Wessex, yet there can be only one "First King of England" and Æthelstan bears that heavy crown with grace.

---
Not my best review, admittedly, but I wanted to at least put some words on the page.

[Blair Hodgkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting, if a little dry, unfolding of Athelstan's story and the foundation of a united England. It covers his kingship and patronage of the church quite closely. The audiobook is well-narrated.

[Catie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this audiobook and appreciated the chance to learn more about a period of English history I don’t know nearly enough about. Woodman offers a detailed and engaging look at Æthelstan’s life and the early formation of England, and I loved diving into a new corner of medieval history and the people who shaped it.

One challenge I had—through no fault of the author—is that there are many figures with the same or very similar names. While the audiobook narrator did a great job with pronunciation and pacing, I still found myself getting confused at times about who was who. That’s probably inevitable with this era, but it occasionally pulled me out of the narrative.

Overall, though, the narrator delivered a strong performance, and I came away feeling like I had meaningfully expanded my understanding of this period. A solid, informative listen for anyone interested in early medieval England or the roots of the English kingdom.

Thank you to David Woodman, Highbridge Audio, and NetGalley for an advanced listener copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[No! Jack! · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another recent British history book pockmarked by the era in which it was written. The author cannot help himself from making relentless, clunky allusions to modern politics. Yes we get it, British history authors writing in the first quarter of the twentieth century, Trump and Farage are very bad men and the multiculturalism of 10th century England (“cosmopolitan…in just the same way that England is constituted today”, according to Woodman) repudiates their politics entirely. Now can you please spare us any more dull Otto English-level lectures and get on with the history?

[Catherine Victor Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to be given the opportunity to review this book as a history lover and specifically Royal British medieval history but this totally missed the mark.
I understand there is little evidence about Athelstan the man but rather most of what we know comes from legal documents that survive, however this felt like i was listening to a dry textbook and with the focus being on the legalities of things it was extremely drab. I found it very repetitive, in fact I don't know if the audio was bad but there were whole chunks that indeed were repeated in its entirety.
The focus was in proving Athelstan was indeed considered the first true king of Englad and it seemed he considered himself king of Britain not just England but I wanted, no I needed more personal information. What did he do with his reign other than grant land to the church and other nobles or meet up with other royals or nobles to discuss laws. I needed something different. Indeed the more interesting bits about this book were the Chapters about his grandfather Alfred and his father Edward.
Sorry but not the 'type' of history book i was looking for.
Audio was ok. A bit on the dry side but I don't appreciate the pronunciation of names and phrases.

[Robert Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to be remembered, you better get a good writer. There were probably contemporary chroniclers of the reign of Athelstan(r. 924-939), the first king of England. But none of their writing stood the test of time. At some point, some monk chose to let each piece of writing about Athelstan's reign rot rather than preserve it. Athelstan's grandfather Alfred had Asser, whose writing was tremendously complimentary to that king, and told a story of victory against overwhelming viking hordes that was good enough to be worth preserving. So it's Alfred (r. 871-889) that got to be known as the Great. It's Alfred that has statues memorializing him all over England, and it's Alfred that got to be one of the stars in at least two recent television shows. Alfred the Great has a strong cultural presence today, while Athelstan, the guy who actually knit together most of modern England, is almost completely forgotten.

Cambridge historian David A. Woodman's lovely book is meant to correct the record to the extent that it's possible. It's a tall order. The record is very sparse. He's got a couple Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, a pile of coins, some laws, some family trees, and most importantly the formal records of a series of land transactions, and who was or was not considered important enough to witness those transactions. The crowning battle of Athelstan's reign, where may have defeated a number of rival kings, is memorialized by a single poem. We don't even know where the battle was. It's not particularly fertile territory, and you can see why Athelstan remains neglected, despite his many accomplishments.

Woodman triumphs over these challenges. It's not really possible to tell a chronological history of of Athelstan's reign. Instead, Woodman weaves a compelling history around the king, and the few records he has left. We don't know how things were done in his court, but we know a bit more about courts of his era or adjacent to his era. We don't know the feelings around his family members, but we do know their names, and for most of them when they lived or died. From that information we can make guesses about the political ramifications. Much of this work is speculative, but Woodman is honest about that, and it's all based on pieces of evidence, no matter how scant.

It would be easy to write a book about Athelstan where every question is "tantalizing" and we end up with a 200-page list of questions. Woodman doesn't do that. He provides an incomplete, but not fragmentary or confused picture of who Athelstan was, and why he is so significant. An excellent book, that filled a few gaps for me. Highly recommended

The fates of Alfred and Athelstan make me wonder which presidents of our era will be remembered? Lyndon B. Johnson has been incredibly lucky with his biographer. Robert A. Caro has produced five massive volumes that provide a picture of LBJ's life, but all of America at the same time. They are products of great historic and literary value. In 1,000 years time will LBJ be the best remembered US president? Because he had the best writer? Hard to say.

[Sifa Poulton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an audiobook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinion.

3.5 stars

THE FIRST KING OF ENGLAND is a biography that makes a successful case for Æthelstan being given more recognition than he currently does.

This biography takes the thematic rather than narrative approach. Instead of following chronologically through his life, each chapter looks at a different aspect of his reign. There is an overview at the start, but after that it's his religious policy or foreign policy examined across his reign - and so on.

Æthelstan is not a king with an obvious strong narrative (unlike, say, Henry V). His reign is not exclusively focused on gaining and then fighting to keep his crown. Instead, he gains control of all England with surprising ease and then keeps it through a range of methods - one being diplomacy. (There are, of course, threats to his reign that he deals with.) This is a less compelling narrative for that form of biography and a thematic approach is easier to explore his life through.

I do personally prefer a narrative biography because it is easier, I find, to follow (you are not bouncing around in time so much!) But this biography does a good job of taking you along by largely treating each chapter with internal chronology. The fact the book will tell you if you've met someone before or will meet them again helped know who would be more important and connect across themes.

The problem this book faced is that I am very, very burnt out - and non-fiction is suffering more than fiction due to this. I try to disconnect my reviews from impressions based on me and not the book itself but the combination of style and struggling with non-fiction means it is quite hard to step back and be objective.

It's why I have little to say about the narration (my brain struggles with audio when I get this burnt out) other than to say that Julian Elfer handles the range of early Medieval European names well. These are not names that are typically familiar to us, both due to linguistical and political changes across Europe in the more than millennia since these events (even as someone with familiarity of Old English, the names of the period still sound very odd to me as I'm so used to the post-1066 names, which form the basis of common English names.)

[Mari · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long, long time ago I spent a whole school year learning about medieval central European history and as part of this we had to analyse troves of primary sources. David Woodman’s book “The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom” in some ways elicited flashbacks to sessions spent poring over those difficult to decipher documents. And like back then, while I generally love history, I found this book hard to truly get lost in.

For the review, I was thinking about why it took me several weeks to finish “The First King of England”. Each time when I did pick it up and got into the rhythm I found the material engaging – but it was never my first choice to listen to. Maybe my knowledge of medieval Britain is just too patchy to put the content in context and the cast of historical figures isn’t exactly the easiest to keep track of. That said, I did find it fascinating to learn more about the international exchange of ideas and it gave me a new appreciation for Æthelstan’s world even if the book reads more like an extremely well researched paper than an immersive biography of a fascinating person.

Julian Elfer was a good choice for the narration and had the right amount of gravitas. Also I was very grateful for his pronunciations of all those tricky names! Nevertheless I wonder if I might have enjoyed this book more in hardcopy form to better digest the details and flip back and forth to remind myself of who is who. I am not sure if there are illustrations in the written versions of this book – but I feel having some illustrations, maps, family trees or even images of the coins and charters mentioned might have brough it a bit more to life for me. Overall, it is an impressive piece of scholarship, but not quite the page-turner I was hoping for.

Thank you to HighBridge Audio, NetGalley and David Woodman for an advance listening copy of this book.

[Acantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating insight into an unjustly overlooked King that is a little let down by the dense nature of the text.

This isn't the easiest book to read. Surviving evidence from Æthelstan's reign are sparse and there is a lot of referring back to a couple of similar chronicles, labelled A through G. With so much of his life and the lives of people involved in his story unknown, the book is divided into themes rather than a normal timeline.

It's worth pushing through however, because Æthelstan deserves to be remembered. The grandson of Alfred the Great, he surely equals his achievements, and this book does a really good job at laying them out, showing his developments, his conquests and his attempts at forming a legacy.

What this book really brought home to me is how connected the world was in the 10th C. We are prone to think people from over a thousand years ago as very insulae but we have trips to Rome, marriages to people from Flanders, battles that stretched from the far south to deep into Scotland, rulers from Wales and Ireland...

I listened to this on audio, and the narrator was very good. A smooth, soothing voice that managed to grapple all the names and unfamiliar words with ease. However - and this is more a personal thing but an issue I think a lot of people will have - it suffers slightly from being an audiobook. With so many of the names being repeated (sons after fathers, daughters after mothers) and so many being so strange to our modern understandings - Æthelstan, Ecgwynn, and Ælfweard, to name but a few - that it is really hard at times to keep up with it. A physical or ebook at least allows you to flip to a glossary if you start to be overwhelmed and lose track of who is who.

~Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review~

[Peregine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is narrated by a British male, and I found it mostly good, except the S sound was a bit piercing on my phone. I don't think this is the best book for an audio book. It is academic and doesn't really have a narrative. The audiobook format makes it hard to use as a reference work, although it is written so that each chapter could be read on its own, and reading footnotes is impossible. Parentheticals are pronounced quieter, which doesn't quite work.

It follows the evidence, which is mostly diploma's and so at points it appears that the real star is the scribe known only as "Aethelstan A". Mostly the evidence is examined and uncertainty is pointed out. The notable exception is the discussion of modern usage of the term Anglo-saxon. It references a moral panic about the term's alleged use by "white supremacists". This seems out of place, especially because the author doesn't apply source criticism to a term that is often applied to political opponents. Also, the term bribe is used to describe a gift to a monastery, although the gift wasn't illicit nor illegal and later chapters suggest that the gift was motivated at least in part by piety. Also, at one point an anonymous modern commentator is cited for the opinion of Welsh kings, which plausible is far from certain and seems to be assuming modern nationalist attitudes in medieval times. This is also contradicted by later chapters where evidence is given that the Welsh rulers were treated with respect and may not have seen their position as subservient to English as the English chroniclers did.

I read a free ARC

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to write a biography when the source material is limited, and some cases biased, but David Woodman does an excellent job of retelling the story of one of England's most influential, yet forgotten, Kings.

While the author is unable to go in depth about Æthelstan the man, he does a good job of highlighting his qualities as a leader and explaining the circumstances that lead to Æthelstan becoming the first King of England.
I also appreciate that Woodman takes the time to explain the context of his source material and suggest why they may not be fully trusted.

The audiobook is wonderfully narrated by Julian Elfer, but my only complaint is, even though he pronounces makes an effort to differentiate each name and pronounces each one clearly, it was occasionally hard to keep track of who's who when everyone has similar sounding names.

Overall, I enjoyed learning about a period of history I knew very little about and would seek out more books by this author and/or narrator.


Thank you to Netgalley and Highbridge Audio for providing me with an advanced review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

[Kate Vane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The First King of England gives a comprehensive account of what we know about Athelstan and how we know it. It discusses how he united and maintained his kingdom, with a combination of patronage, military force and strategic alliances (not least marriages, including sending off two unfortunate sisters to a European ally so the groom could choose which he liked best).

Woodman assesses the sources, mainly written documents, and what we can infer from their different approaches (interesting to learn that even his own scribes each had their idiosyncrasies). He ends with a consideration of why Athelstan is not better known, given his role in being the first king to unite a kingdom we would recognise as England.

I listened to the audiobook. The narration is good, and I enjoyed it, but I wonder if it falls between two stools. As a general reader/listener I might have preferred more of a narrative, and less about the sources. If you are interested in the detail, you’ll probably want a text version as well so you can refer back.

In all, it’s an accessible, well-written account and a good introduction to the history of Athelstan and the period.
*
Copy from NetGalley

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this style of historical nonfiction because it’s more about how and why we know what we know than simply presenting historical information.

To that end, if you’re new to this period of history, this is probably not the place to start. But if you’ve got a bit of background on the subject or are willing to look into it, this is a great piece of narrative scholarship.

Early England isn’t my primary area of interest in history, but I find it has a lot of importance to the things I focus on, and I found myself really interested in what Woodman had to say here, particularly in terms of how he went about sourcing information.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Andrea Wenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers a comprehensive biography of Æthelstan, the early medieval king whose conquests and statesmanship united England. It details his life, military victories, governance, alliances, and legacy, highlighting his pivotal role in shaping the English kingdom.

I loved this—I knew literally nothing about Æthelstan before listening to this audiobook, and it was fascinating to fill in some of the gaps. Keep in mind that limited source material exists for Æthelstan’s reign, so this is more of a history than a biography. There’s a lot we don’t know about Æthelstan’s life, but this book gives a good feel for his reign and the time period. I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Megan Beech · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who loves history and constantly learning about historical figures I'm unfamiliar with, I absolutely enjoyed listening to this audiobook about the first king of England! As someone who also loves anything and everything Viking related (not just because of my lineage), this telling of Æthelstan's reign is awe inspiring and truly fascinating to say the very least. This was a fantastic read and listen and I can't recommend this book enough! This narration was on point and kept me engaged! The book in itself was very written, researched and received. I truly enjoyed this so much!

I would love to thank the author, narrator, publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

[Susan Grimshaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aethelstan, the first King of England has had little recognition of the important role he played in the early history of the country. This book successfully seeks to remedy this by throwing a light on Aethelstan the man and on his achievement in consolidating a United Kingdom from very diverse territories. He was also a person of considerable influence abroad extending his influence in Europe by making beneficial marriage alliances for his sisters. Inevitably in a book about a person about whom there is limited information there is some degree of repetition, but congratulations to the Author for giving Athelstan the recognition he so rightly deserves.

[Julie Friar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aethelstan would be known as the man who would bring together the ‘Kingdom of the English’. This excellent is full of well presented information about his early life, his military victories, how he governed, his love of the church and the political alliances he formed, up to his death.

Very well written and well narrated book (I listened to the audiobook). We learn more about his family history leading to when he declared himself the first King of England in 927, after he conquered the Vikings at York, gained tributes from the Welsh kings and the submission of a Scottish king.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really great listen on audiobook, I love how clear the narration is with it being easy to follow whilst listening. It’s really brought to life a period of history I knew little about and I really enjoyed the beginning where a run down of pronunciations and people was given.
I see others have described it as being a bit dry, and I can see where they’re coming from but it is a fairly niche listen and for this type of book I really thought it was great.
Honestly a 5 star listen!
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Although I am a student of history, I am not well versed in the history of Æthelstan And yet after listening to this audiobook, I truly had a better understanding of the man and the King. I am well aware that unfortunately there is very little source material that exists from Æthelstan’s time period, therefore this book is truly more of a history of the man than a biography. I enjoyed the audiobook so much that I plan on doing further research on Æthelstan to see what I can come up with.

[Nan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was relatively interesting. It was fun to learn about a time in English history that I didn't know much about. Although I think not knowing much might have hindered my enjoyment of the book because it did get a bit tedious at times; trying to follow everything. The audiobook narrator was very good.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for an advanced ARC of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.