The eventful life of Charlemagne is documented by means of a quite extended number of contemporary sources (at least in comparison to other early medieval kings) and it is studied in a monstrous quantity of recent scholarship. To the huge number of biographies of Charlemagne published in the last decade Rosamond McKitterick adds another one – which, however, is not intended as a biography – trying to strip down presumed certainties to what we might be able to reconstruct. She examines, consequently, rather the primary evidence of the sources along with Frankish perceptions and uses of the past and explores the degree to which the Franks communicated with the past in order to heighten their sense of identity and to shape their political purposes. This the long-awaited book by this specialist in Carolingian history offers much more than a mere synopsis of her previous studies of Carolingian history; she promises, in fact, a fresh look at the development of the Carolingian empire and actually offers several new assumptions, militating, for example, against the hitherto prevailing view of the bitter rivalry between Charlemagne and his brother Carloman after 768. Starting with a clear analysis of the sources in the first chapter, McKitterick subsequently describes the creation of the Carolingian dynasty, the expansion of the kingdom and the statements regarding Charlemagne's succession in the Divisio regnorum in 806 and Charlemagne's will in 811. Based on Hincmar's De ordine palatii McKitterick discusses, in the third chapter of the book, the royal court, which she considers less static than scholars hitherto, and stresses the importance of the communication between the royal court and the plurality of political and administrative centres within the realm. Regarding the court on the move she rejects the argument that the patterns of the journeys with a rather small entourage had been that of a systematic or comprehensive system of rule. Thus, royal government depended less on the king's own movement within his realm than on the effectiveness of his officials in the periphery and on the means of communication, as McKitterick makes evident in the last chapter, where she discusses in detail Charlemagne's network of communication. This book's concentration on communication and means of government within the Frankish realm means, however, that merely marginal attention is paid to the relationship with Rome and the popes. None the less, reading McKitterick's book is as profitable as it is exciting. This closely-argued work links the author's previous opinions and recent scholarship and offers stimulating, occasionally speculative, ideas, which will initiate further research. An index of manuscripts and a general index bring an inspiring volume to a conclusion.