Douglas Dales provides a comprehensive study of the life of one of the most underrated figures of the early medieval Western Church. Alcuin left behind him a varied selection of correspondence and other documents which attest to his prominence as a statesman, theologian, poet, friend, and teacher. The author deftly deals with the primary manuscript evidence to record Alcuin's transition from a precocious schoolboy of noble lineage in York to his involvement with Charlemagne, Offa, and the papacy in Rome. Alcuin's life and career are closely followed in this definitive book, which is the first study to fully examine the full span of Alcuin's life and the lasting effect of his actions. Alcuin was a conscious heir to the rich traditions of the English Church, and his skill as a poet of prayer, as well as an educator, marks Alcuin out as a seminal in influence upon his own generation and those that came after him. This book examines the life and career of Alcuin in England and on the continent; it also considers his legacy as a churchman and a leading political figure. This book demonstrates that Alcuin's Christian cultural inheritance and historical significance is at the forefront of his life and legacy. This gives a fascinating backdrop to the subtle and nuanced elements of Alcuin's personality and relationships which the author carefully gleans from the surviving evidence. This authoritative and ground-breaking work illuminates for the reader the importance of Alcuin to the period, its literacy, imperialism, and monasticism.Douglas Dales was from 1984 to 2012 Chaplain of Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and he is now a parish priest in the diocese of Oxford. He is the author of several studies in Anglo-Saxon church history and other areas of theology, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of 'Dunstan: Saint and Statesman'; 'Living through Dying: The Spiritual Experience of Saint Paul'; and 'Light to the Isles: Mission and Theology in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain'.