The Bone Chests

A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘Beguiling … I adored [River Kings] so felt like a young boy on Christmas morning when I first opened The Bone Chests … Jarman’s investigation has something of a Dan Brown quest to it … she’s a diligent historian and a superb writer’ The Times 'This is the best kind of popular history, retelling the story of early medieval England with an equally good grasp of textual sources, archaeology and forensic analysis, and a love of Winchester’ Ronald Hutton ‘Through their story, we can recapture the spirit of the Anglo-Saxon age and, as Jarman writes, learn about the ‘past lives of people who were a little bit like us, who lived, loved, and left an imprint on the generations that came after them’, and who in their vexing anonymity encourage us to find out more’ Literary Review ‘An engaging account of England’s pre-Conquest monarchs, from famous figured such as Alfred the Great to long-forgotten kings Cynegils and Centwine’ i News PRAISE FOR RIVER KINGS: A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER (September 2021) Waterstones Book of the Month (October 2021) ‘A masterly history … River Kings is a mystery and an adventure, the tale of a quest that took Jarman from Repton to Scandinavia, across the Baltic Sea, over to Baghdad and finally to India. I was held captive … In addition to being a wonderful writer, Jarman is a skilled bioarchaeologist … River Kings is like a classical symphony, perfectly composed and exquisitely performed. Tiny trills of detail give way to pounding drums of drama’ Gerard deGroot, Times ‘Cat Jarman will transform the way you think about the Vikings’ Dan Snow