“The development of the 'New British History' (or preferably 'Archipelagic History') in the late twentieth century also lends itself to the study of the Northumbrian kingdom. The approach promotes the comparison, and tracing of contacts, between England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It has been criticised for a focus on 'anglicisation', that is the extension of English power across the archipelago. Such an approach would indeed be problematic in relation to the tenth century, when English dominance was more of an aspiration than a reality, and even more so for the heyday of the autonomous Northumbrian kingdom. In contrast, my book investigates influences travelling in the other direction, those emanating from the Gaelic world. I therefore favour a version of the Archiplagic approach in which influences travel in numerous directions, and the various communities 'interact so as to modify the conditions of each other's existence'.”