From the Archive: Interview with Michael Wood

The following interview featured in HistFest 2021's festival programme

Back in 2021, broadcaster, author and historian Michael Wood presented a fascinating talk about Lady Æthelflæd to HistFest audiences. He kindly agreed to be interviewed about his work, research and historical interests for 2021’s festival programme.

What inspired you to become a historian?

I’ve always been fascinated by the past, for as long as I can remember. The idea that the people of the past lie just beyond the threshold of the living, that in important ways they were just like us, and yet in other ways not like us at all; that past lives can be brought back to life by stories, through sources, and with creative imagination…all that I just loved. Of course being the age I am, a fifties child, the memories of older members of our family were of the Second World War- and even the First War. When you are little, hearing the elders talk of such things, what they themselves went through- that’s thrilling don’t you think? My great uncle Eddie Scholes was wounded at the Somme, my mum was in the Manchester Blitz, my aunt Anna in Special Operations; Uncle Bill went from Dunkirk to D Day to Berlin; uncle Syd was torpedoed and sunk in the ‘Med”; my dad was in the operating theatres at Haslar Naval Hospital on D-Day and after- and we were just one very ordinary Mancunian family. So history is everywhere when you look. And of course , especially in Manchester, there were older stories; my dad’s family were in Failsworth since at least the early 1700s, so lots of Lancashire tales; the Industrial Revolution, Peterloo, the Cotton Famine, etc. Its the stories that grab you isn’t it? And the way you tell them too….

At HistFest you will be talking about Æthelflæd, the so-called ‘Lady of the Mercians’. What first drew you to her?

I’ve loved Anglo-Saxons and Vikings since I was a child; and I have been fascinated by the late 9th-early tenth century since I was at school. Especially the reign of Æthelstan because it was so little known, and clearly really important things happened in it which shaped the development of the English state. Sir Frank Stenton said that Athelstan was the greatest English ruler for whom no modern biography existed- so there and then aged 16 or 17 I resolved to write it one day! I’ve made two films about him, and written a dozen academic articles as well as chapters in books, and magazine articles, over the years, etc; but I’m still working on it, as there are still many unresolved questions; though recently there have been studies of the king –his bandwagon has finally begun to roll! But to understand his reign of course you have to understand what happened before it- indeed the remarkable developments between c880 and 940 have to be understood as a family plan I think; and so gradually you realise that Aethelflaed (in whose court Ath was brought up) is of crucial importance in the creation of a single kingdom of the English; and of course she is incredibly interesting in her own right, even though the sources are so poor for her life and rule. You could argue that without her the kingdom of England might not have happened, or at least in the way that it did. And then, of course, there is the whole issue of the erasure of womens’ history, of which she is virtually a test case….More on that on Sunday!

Do you think she has been overshadowed by her male contemporaries?

Of course. But why? First because she was a woman in a patriarchal society. Partly it’s the accident of survival of sources, but partly its deliberate. You only have to look at the key Winchester manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (‘A” –Corpus Cambridge 173) to see how her deeds were omitted-obviously deliberately – from the story of the wars of the early tenth century which had to be seen from the point of view of Wessex and the dynasty. Her only mention is at her death, and then only as the king’s sister , not as the ruler of Mercia. Were it not for the so-called Mercian Register, or “Annals of Aethelflaed’- a set of short annals from Worcester that tell her story- we might never have known that she directed campaigns, constructed towns and fortresses and engaged in diplomacy with Northumbrians, Scots etc. That’s what I’ll be talking about on Sunday evening.

Your first history TV series was In Search of the Dark Ages back in 1980. How has history filmmaking changed over the course of your career?

A big question! Of course, the technology has changed hugely: we shot on 16mm film, celluloid strips that were physically cut and edited on a Steenbeck; if we wanted to do a graphic we had an artist paint a map on a card, and we shot it on a rostrum camera! Now you literally could make a film on your iPhone. But that said, essentially making TV history (on what we still call film) has not changed at all. Films are a combination of pictures, sounds, words and music- and its the way that these elements are put together that lift a film from the ordinary to the special. And above all its the story-telling that counts. Whether it’s a House through Time or our Story of England which took one village through history, or a grand sweep series like the Story of China-it’s the story that counts. What I think the Dark Ages series did differently was cut free from a more staid view of TV history to something more loose, more fun, and with more drama in the story telling: Tony Robinson said that the series ‘wrote the book for TV history”.

The updated version of In Search of the Dark Ages was released in 2023

Given the evolving nature of historical and archaeological research and understanding, are there any TV series you wish you could go back to and update?

Yes, as it happens, I’ve just finished a major rewrite of the In Search of the Dark Ages book with new research, new ideas, and new chapters , and if I had the opportunity it would be fun to do a new TV series, with women like Aethelflaed, Eadgyth, Emma, etc,- and how about Hadrian the African? Theres a thought.

From writing history books and making films, to public speaking and being Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester – you have such a varied career. What’s a typical day like in the life of Michael Wood?

At the moment doing the garden and walking the dog! I’ve just finished seven years of working and filming in China, with a dozen films, the last being last year’s China’s Greatest Poet (Du Fu) for the BBC with readings by Sir Ian McKellen. My big book on the Story of China came out in the autumn, so I am still doing online talks, literary festivals etc on that.

If you had a time-machine for 24 hours, where and when would you go?

Much as would like to meet Athelstan, I’d go to Late 1590s London, hoping to see a show in Shoreditch or at one of the theatre inns in Bishopsgate, and be a groupie to Shakespeare and his mates afterwards in the Blue Boar in Cheapside. So many questions to ask Will of course, but I imagine he was someone who kept his cards close to his chest and was only forthcoming when he wanted to be?

What are you working on at the moment?

I have written a chapter for a book of essays on Aethelflaed, edited by Rebecca Hardie who teaches at the Free University of Berlin, and I am about to re-engage with a book on Æthelstan that has been in my drawer for some years; it’s a medieval manuscript mystery – about the discovery in the 12th century of a lost manuscript containing a verse biography of the king. The book reconstructs what was in the manuscript, and I hope will finally be out next year. In it, as you will imagine, Aethelflaed features strongly!

The Story of China by Michael Wood, released in 2021

Michael returns to HistFest in 2024 to chair a fascinating event looking at the history of Alexandria with award-winning historian and author Dr Islam Issa. Book your festival tickets now!