I would like to read books about the Middle Ages, or earlier

Lots of good ones recommended already.

I’ll add ‘The Heaven Tree’ trilogy by Edith Pargeter and ‘The Queen’s Man’ series by Sharon Penman.

Alison Weir's Elizabeth of York book is good. She was Henry 8's mum, so spans the end of the Plantagenets into Tudors. She also did a book from the point of view of each of the six wives if you are interested in after medieval history. Only thing there is they shared a time in history, so there is lots of overlap.

If you like Phillipa Gregory, she did a book about normal women through history. I desperately wanted to like it, but can never really get into her writing style.

Both the Pillars of the Earth and Last Kingdom tv adaptations are very good. The guy who play Uthred in Last Kingdom is very easy on the eye too.

Agnes Bowkers Cat not your standard history book but very interesting

Shamelessly placemarking - love this thread, thanks for the recommendations.

Judith merkle Riley wrote a good trilogy of novels about a medieval woman (14th century) woman who commissioned her own biography, much to everyone’s disapproval - starts with A Vision of Light

I'm so glad, I think it's incredible!

@ThatOpenSwan Thank you so much for recommending To Calais…. I started it last night and could hardly put it down. What a remarkable book.

For fiction and if you like a bit of a detective angle try the Owen Archer series by Candace Robb: set in York in late 14th C.

thanks to everyone for the suggestions - will be checking some out

Wikipedia is quite reliable these days for an overview and for very specialised subjects such as biographies.
Start with Roman or Viking for instance. King Alfred.
Remember to scroll down the page for book titles and authors that are the sources for the main articles.
On YouTube try Michael Wood or David Starkey and their books.
Dorothy Whitelock is very good.

The only thing that comes to mind is Myself As Witness, by James Goldman.

app.thestorygraph.com/books/0114a193-18ca-4bdd-9576-5626490859e5

This is my academic area, and I really love it, so a few recommendations of things I've read more recently. (I haaaaaated Matrix though, so our historical fiction thoughts may not match - I didn't find it in any way a good representation of an early medieval woman and her thought world, and the self-importance of it made me cross.)

Non-fiction:
The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega - I have some quibbles, but fundamentally fascinating, amusing and well-written.
Femina by Janina Ramirez - a little weaker on the early stuff but basically great.
The Bright Ages by Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry - worth a look, very much a general history (no footnotes!!) but interesting and a good starting place.
River Kings by Cat Jarman - very good on the Vikings and the archaeology of their travels.
Max Adams writes the most fascinating early medieval non-fiction that I know of, and all of his books are worth reading, although possibly not as a starting point - he assumes some knowledge of the period. Morris' book, mentioned by a previous poster, is a good starting point.

Fiction:
For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy On My Little Pain by Victoria Mackenzie - a much more plausible attempt than Matrix to think about women and religion in the medieval period.
Storyland by Amy Jeffs - really stunning illustrations and lovely retellings of some of the medieval myths about Britain.
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite - this is later than you want (15th century), but is so excellent that it's worth mentioning, a really great character study and story.
Cathedral by Ben Hopkins - also later than you want (12th and 13th century) and set in Germany but really really good on some of the slow changes throughout the period and on atmosphere.
To Calais In Ordinary Time by James Meek - ALSO later, I'm so sorry, I keep getting distracted with great books! This one is 14th century, Black Death, but it is hands down the best piece of historical fiction I've ever read. It does completely fascinating things with language and is amazing.
Cuddy by Benjamin Myers - big sections in the right time period, and it's a powerful book which takes an early medieval life as its starting point.

Can I also really recommend reading some early medieval literature? Available fairly widely, with my personal recommended translations: Beowulf (Heaney). Mabinogion (Davies), Táin Bó Cúailnge (Kinsella), Icelandic sagas (Smiley's edition is excellent) are all great and relatively easy places to start. Gantz has a good edition of some of the early Irish stuff that isn't the Táin and if you went mad a wanted to spend a load of money, Rowland's edition of the Englynion is a stunner.

I listen to the Gone Mediaeval podcast on Spotify, which often has book recommendations.

I did enjoy the Ken Follett and Cadfael books mentioned. I’ll have a look at
the others.

I really didn’t enjoy Unruly unfortunately, I did hear it in David Mitchell’s voice!

The Time Travellers Guides are brilliant, very well written and informative without being remotely dry. They are non fiction.
you want the one to Medieval Britain

I’ve started listening to the Rest is History podcast on Spotify. It’s really interesting and discusses lots of different eras of history. I know you have said book but you might like to whittle away some mundane chore time listening to some educated people discuss days gone by, it makes cleaning a damn sight more interesting!

Yes to all the above - especially Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King and Last Kingdom series.

Also the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters set in the civil war era of Stephen vs Matilda - early 12th century.

If you are a member of a city library you should be able to access the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online - plenty of information on there about historical figures.

Women in Medieval Life by Margaret Wade Labarge - readable nonfiction. But it sounds as you want some stuff that's earlier.

I would suggest some In Our Time as well

Millennium by Tom Holland is brilliant.

More of a place mark than anything else!

If you're looking for an all encompassing history of the British Isles I can thoroughly recommend The Isles, a History by Norman Davis.

If you like chronological learning, Francis Pryor's books are great. He's an archaeologist but he writes about the people behind the 'stones and bones'.

Britain BC and Britain AD would be the best hopping off points to learn whether you enjoy his writing style.

Haven't read the thread. Cadfael mysteries. 12th century monk. Very well written imo.

If you want to move a bit further west you might enjoy Elizabeth Boyle's Fierce Appetites. Part history of early medieval (5th to 12th c) Ireland (she is an academic historian) part memoir, part Covid year diary. Readable, funny, erudite.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59819516-fierce-appetites

I think I've read almost everything recommended on this thread - I love this time period.

I will add the Owen Archer mysteries series by Candace Robb (Set in late 1300s) and the Cadfael novels by Ellis Peters (mid 12th C.)

Bit later than your proposed time frame but my favourite book ever is Katherine, by Anya Seton. It's just brilliant.

As an aside, @Pixiedust1234 - I never knew Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt were one and the same!