North Men: The Viking Saga by John Haywood, £25
IN CUMBRIA, the Viking legacy lives on in the county's place names, in the Herdwick sheep that roam the Lake District fells and in the genes of the Scandinavian invaders' modern descendants.
Archaeological evidence suggests many Norwegian Vikings came from Ireland and the Isle of Man to settle along the west coast of Cumbria and it is possible that Seascale was their first settlement in the county as part of their invasion of northern Britain and Ireland.
But this was only a small part of the Viking sphere of influence, as Lancaster author John Haywood reveals in this fascinating and authoritative book.
Indeed, the North Men ventured from Newfoundland in the west to Baghdad in the east, fighting or trading peacefully with the people of France, Spain and Russia along the way.
John Haywood was educated at the universities of Lancaster, Cambridge and Copenhagen and is an expert on Dark Age Europe. He is the acclaimed author of The New Atlas of World History and The Penguin Atlas of the Vikings.
North Men is published by Head of Zeus.
ALLAN TUNNINGLEY
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