Welcome boys and girls (and any grown ups) and thank you for choosing to read my book about Bede of Jarrow. Some people call him Saint Bede but more about that later. This a fictional account of his life as a young boy growing up in the kingdom of Northumbria now Tyne and Wear. It is my idea of what could have happened to a young person growing up in a land where very few people could read and write and life was hard. Some of the things I have described could not possibly have happened as the thing I have described had not been invented or discovered. This is known as an anachronism or something that is out of its time. An extreme example would be if I had Bede travelling in a car or an aeroplane. I hope the anachronisms I have included are more subtle than that and you will need to read the book actively to see how many you can discover. Although some of my anachronisms are deliberate some will be accidental as, even though I was born less than a mile away from where Bede lived, I am ashamed at how little I knew about him before writing this book. I have tried to make this book interesting to both girls and boys. Girls have a prominent role in Bede's life. I hope that you enjoy reading about Bede and if you do please look out for two other books in the series telling you about Bede as a teenager and young man.I said earlier that Bede is known as a saint which means he was a holy man who loved God. He is famous for translating the Bible which is the most important holy book for Christians. In this book you will hear some of the stories from the Bible which I think you may recognise as the Bible has influenced the whole world for thousands of years. I hope you will enjoy reading this book and I have used some vocabulary which you may not understand. Don't worry about this, just ask an adult or your teacher to help. Or even better still look up the word yourself in a dictionary at home or in a library or online. I find that I remember the meaning of the word much better this way than by asking someone. Please write or email me and let me know the anachronisms you have discovered. I will try to reply especially if you discover some I did not mean.
About the Author: Joe Stewart has worked in finance and education and was born in Hebburn only a few miles from where Bede lived. In this fictional account, Bede's live in the North East is hard yet similar in many ways to a 21st century boy.