The Anglo-Saxon period has often been dismissed as 'lost centuries' or the Dark Ages, but archaeological evidence and later written sources reveal a complex and sophisticated culture that was beginning to move towards urbanisation, establishing market-places to facilitate the trade of local and exotic goods, and developing an organised educational system. In Early Anglo Saxon Britain, Sally Crawford paints a vivid portrait of daily life in the period that saw the Anglo-Saxon invasion and the end of Roman Britain: from the status and demands of occupations to the structures of families, and from the intricacies of feasting to the period's elaborate and creative entertainments.