A Walk in the Dark Ages - Hardcover

In this account of the imaginary wanderings of an Irish monk/scholar across the Europe of 13 centuries ago, Frank Delaney uses a blend of history, lore, scholarship, travel and travellers' tales to relate the journey from a monastery in the south of Ireland to the gleaming towers of Byzantium. Along the way the traveller visits the shrines of seventh century England and the courts of the Saxon Kings, the wealthy farms of Normandy and Marne and the sites of great European fairs in Avignon and Cologne. He observes the ruined villas and temples of ancient Rome and passes across the sea to the palaces of Constantinople, once regarded as the centre of the world. The award winning writer and broadcaster, Frank Delany, examines in his commentary the emerging patterns of political and social Europe, exploring legend, literature and landscape in his attempt to provide a literary portrait of the life of the time.