La professoressa Owen-Crocker approfondisce il ricco arazzo della letteratura e cultura anglosassone, con un focus particolare sull'importanza dell'abbigliamento e dei tessuti medievali. Le sue ricerche accademiche l'hanno portata a tenere conferenze a livello internazionale, condividendo la sua esperienza sulla cultura materiale del passato. Ha inoltre fornito preziosi consigli a musei e unità archeologiche, contribuendo a illuminare la storia dell'abbigliamento medievale. Le sue intuizioni sono state riconosciute attraverso la partecipazione a programmi televisivi e radiofonici, consolidando la sua reputazione come voce di spicco nel suo campo.
Splendid...the major overview of Anglo-Saxon clothing and textile from the 5th to 11th centuries. [...] Owen-Crocker has become the authority reconstructors call upon... A wise and scholarly book. TOEBI Newsletter
Since its establishment in 1985 the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies has regularly hosted international, interdisciplinary conferences, especially an annual Easter Conference. The 2006 MANCASS Easter conference titled ‘Royal Kingship and Power in Anglo-Saxon England’ focused on historical contributions analysing sources of knowledge about royal power; and others which pinpointed loss of power or insecure pretensions to the crown. There were also offerings which teased material relevant to the conference theme out of artefactual and literary sources. This volume includes one long essay by Gareth Williams, surveying Anglo-Saxon coins in relation to kingly authority. There are six shorter essays, two on text, and one on parchment production as an indicator of monastic economy and royal patronage. Others focus on royal retirement into a monastery as renunciation of power by aging or vunerable monarchs, failure to lead troops against an invader, and creation of a heroic image to mask weakness in the case of Edmund Ironside.