Christians and Pagans: The Conversion of Britain from Alban to Bede

'Christians and Pagans' offers a comprehensive and highly readable account of the coming of Christianity to Britain, its coexistence or conflict with paganism, and its impact on the lives of both indigenous islanders and invading Anglo-Saxons. It also presents a full analysis of Christianity's impact on cultural life, culminating in a succinct and penetrating account of the achievements of the Northumbrian renaissance.

The Christianity of Roman Britain, so often treated in isolation, is here deftly integrated with the history of the British churches of the Celtic world, with Ireland, Iona and Pictland. Combining chronicle and literary evidence with the fruits of the latest archaeological research, Malcolm Lambert illuminates the ways in which the conversion process changed the hearts and minds of early Britain.

Malcolm Lambert was reader in medieval history at Bristol University.