The Times book of the year in 2001 was ‘The River Kings’ by Cat Jarman. Her speciality is to examine the historical record as a bioarchaeologist using forensic techniques and detection to examine her subject. In her 2001 book Jarman traced the journey of the Danes (aka Vikings) who came to settle in England. In her her new book called ‘The Bone Chests: unlocking the secrets of the Anglo-Saxons’ she unravels the history of the six bone chests in Winchester Cathedral which contain the remains of eight kings, including William Rufus and Cnut the Great. The bones were disturbed, indeed dispersed, by Parliamentarian soldiers in 1642 but after the desecration and the army’s departure the bones were regathered and placed in six chests. Cat Jarman’s book is based on the recent (2014) reopening of the chests, what was discovered in them, and in the process discusses a millennium of English history. Published by William Collins in September 2023, ISBN 9780008447328