This history travels back to the dark ages to show how warring kingdoms (Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia) forged medieval Britain and the country as we know it today. Williams takes a single realm at a time to show how these kingdoms were formed and why they failed; how communities adapted; and what the challenges were. Through stories of adversity an failure, we can better understand the stakes, scale and nature of what was unfolding all those years ago.