Towns in the Dark: Urban Transformations from Late Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England

Interesting and clearly written, gives a good impression of the 'decline' of the towns of late Roman Britain. I was left with an impression of continuity but with a different function and scale as the towns lost their administrative function.

This is a wide-ranging review of archaeological evidence concerning towns in the post-Roman period. One helpful emphasis is on the limited area of excavation undertaken on even key sites such as Wroxeter (stated as 1%, p. 93). The author also includes substantial reference to overall debates about the 'decline' of Roman Britain and the extent to which towns continued to have a significant role.The book would have benefited from stronger editing. "For religion and burials Colchester has much to offer ..." (p. 32) is the beginning of an apparently serious sentence about religious structures and burials. Some statements are difficult to understand, e.g. "Artefact chronologies have been largely suppressed [compressed?] by traditional historical models that have severe limitations" (page 143). Neil Faulkner is described as writing with "preconceived dispassionate views" (p. 100), which is probably the opposite of what is intended. Fortunately, these awkward elements are more distracting than destructive.