Part of an eight-volume series providing short biographies of men and women from Roman to Victorian times, Who's Who in Roman Britain and Anglo-Saxon England is more than a work of reference: it is a book to read and enjoy. Drawing on the discoveries of archaeologists and other researchers, the author of this volume has prepared over 140 short biographies which convey more than the bare facts of his subjects' lives: he places them in the contact of their time and evokes what was distinctive and interesting in their personality and achievement. The biographies are arranged in a broadly chronological rather than alphabetical sequence so that the reader may easily browse from one contemporary to the next. The index, with its many cross-references, reveals further linkages between contemporaries. Each volume is a portrait of an age, presenting history in a biographical form which complements the conventional approach.

Richard A Fletcher read history at Oxford and was Senior Lecturer in History at the University of York. He wrote several books and contributed articles and reviews to learned journals, and was particularly well-respected in the field of Medieval history.