Bede's World

How far can historians and archaeologists go in popularising or animating the story they have to tell before they begin to lose academic credibility or respectability? The question is given fresh relevance by Bedes World (complete with authentic Anglo-Saxon genitive and no apostrophe before the 's'), a recently launched project based on the church and monastic ruins at Jarrow on Tyneside where the Venerable Bede spent 50 years of his life. There he wrote his History of the English Church and People - a work which brought new standards of honesty and objectivity to the historian's craft.