A TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR ?~A diligent historian and a superb writer?T THE TIMES From bioarchaeologist and bestselling author of River Kings, a gripping new history of the making of England as a nation, told through six bone chests, stored for over a thousand years in Winchester Cathedral. In December 1642, during the Civil War, Parliamentarian troops stormed the magnificent cathedral, intent on destruction. Reaching the presbytery, its beating heart, the soldiers searched out ten beautifully decorated wooden chests resting high up on the stone screens. Those chests contained some of England?Ts most venerated, ancient remains: the bones of eight kings, including William Rufus and Cnut the Great ?” the only Scandinavian king to rule England and a North Sea empire; three bishops ; and a formidable queen, Emma of Nor