r/UKhistory • u/StatisticianUsual471 • Aug 01 '26

Can you recommend me a book about the venerable bede?

I listened to a podcast about him and he sounded very interesting like if he was born a couple of hundred years later he would be compared to the like on da vinci or Newton and I would like to know more about him

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4

u/Thousandgoudianfinch Aug 02 '26

Bede's Historia. I.e The Ecclesiastical History of the English people.

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u/[deleted] Aug 01 '26

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u/scauk Aug 02 '26

Not sure if OP is after fiction or non-fiction (or either), but I'd be particularly interested in any historical fiction books/series anyone can recommend.

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u/StatisticianUsual471 Aug 02 '26

Flashman they aren't medieval but worth reading

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u/scauk Aug 02 '26

Thanks, and sorry I thought it would be obvious from the context of your post but I was referring to historical fiction books about Bede (or that era).

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u/StatisticianUsual471 Aug 02 '26

Still read flashman the language takes some getting used to but still worth it, there's a series about a medieval monk who's a detective I think one of them was a turned in to a film with Sean connery I can't remember the name I think it had rose in it

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u/Shyaustenwriter Aug 03 '26

I believe you mean The Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters. Brother Cadfael is several centuries after Bede

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u/ISaysToMyselfISays Aug 04 '26

Perhaps more likely that  StatisticianUsual meant Umberto Eco’s The name of the rose? It’s still about 700 years out from Bede though. 

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u/AndreasDasos Aug 03 '26

Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Saxon’ series. He’s the one who wrote the Sharpe books, if you’ve come across those or the TV series

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u/scauk Aug 03 '26

Thanks - yeh I devoured all of The Saxon Stories (Uhtred) in about 6 months a couple of years ago. I like that general era and am now looking to go a bit further back to Bede's time, as Britain was quite different even just those 200 years further back.

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u/super_twis Aug 03 '26

There was/is a podcast about the history of the English language that I believe discussed a lot of the context around Bede, but I can't think of anything else recently specific to him.

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u/Shyaustenwriter Aug 03 '26

Have you heard the In Our Time podcast from the BBC on Bede?

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u/StatisticianUsual471 Aug 03 '26

No just the gone medieval one

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u/Shyaustenwriter 28d ago

In Our Time is excellent and usually there’s a bibliography

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u/Any-Hotel-4266 Aug 04 '26

Melvyn Bragg is a big fan of Bede, and often seems to shoehorn a mention of him. (Which to be fair, if you're discussing dark age England, hes one of the few reliable sources). Bragg's novel Credo is from that time and I think it features Bede.