There was a lot of murder in Anglo-Saxon England, so Annie Whitehead’s new book, Murder in Anglo-Saxon England: Justice, Wergild, Revenge has over a hundred early deaths.
I knew a little of the often savage revenge which passed for Anglo-Saxon justice, but not much about wergild (the value set on human life according to rank and paid as compensation to the kindred or lord of a slain person) - until now.
Annie Whitehead does an excellent job of navigating the wealth of myths and legends in search of historical evidence to find what we can learn about Anglo-Saxon values and society.
I’ve learned more than I expected from this highly readable new book, and like how Annie Whitehead’s passion for the subject shines through. Highly recommended.
Tony Riches
(I would like to thank the publishers, Amberley, for providing a review copy.)
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About the Author:
Annie Whitehead is a prize-winning writer, historian, and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has written four award-winning novels set in ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Mercia. She has contributed to fiction and nonfiction anthologies and written for various magazines. She has twice been a prize winner in the Mail on Sunday Novel Writing Competition, and won First Prize in the 2012 New Writer Magazine's Prose and Poetry Competition. She has been a finalist in the Tom Howard Prize for nonfiction and was shortlisted for the Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley Award 2021. She was the winner of the inaugural Historical Writers’ Association (HWA)/Dorothy Dunnett Prize 2017 and was subsequently a judge for that same competition. She has also been a judge for the HNS (Historical Novel Society) Short Story Competition, and is a 2024 judge for the HWA Crown Nonfiction Award. Her nonfiction books are Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom and Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England (Pen & Sword Books). In 2023 she contributed to a new history of English monarchs, published by Hodder & Stoughton, and in February 2025 Amberley Books will publish Murder in Anglo-Saxon England. Find out more from Annie's website https://anniewhiteheadauthor.co.uk/ and find her om Facebook and Twitter @AnnieWHistory
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