Bede was the greatest writer in Anglo-Saxon literature. He wrote both poetry and prose, history and hagiography. We rely on him almost entirely for the early history of England – through his ‘Ecclesiastical History of the English People’ – relying on and recording local tradition. His wide learning stretched from Latin and Greek, to astronomy and medicine. He is simply a giant of what used to be called the Dark Ages. The church of St. Peter in Jarrow still boasts a window whose glass dates to Bede’s time.