Stating that "mortuary practices can be conceptualized as strategies for remembering and forgetting", he discusses the influence of sociology and anthropology on his study before exploring the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Swallowcliffe Down in Wiltshire.

[1] Chapter two, "Objects of memory", examines the inclusion of grave goods in Early Medieval burials, among them jewellery and weaponry, emphasising the mnemonic effects that these might have had on those attending the funeral.

[4] The fifth chapter, "Monuments and memory", focuses on the way in which cairns and burial mounds were erected to commemorate the death, also looking at ring ditches and Pictish symbol stones.

Although noting that churches, domestic architecture, and stone monuments were not discussed, she believed that Williams used sufficient evidence to illustrate his "firm command" of the subject.

Praising the presentation of the evidence and the "particularly elegant" illustrations, she believed that he would have benefitted from including information on the Prittlewell Prince burial, Franks Casket, and a wider array of contemporary literary sources.