Francis Young will be in conversation with Alex Wright, his publisher at Cambridge University Press, about his most recent book: SILENCE OF THE GODS: THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF EUROPE'S LAST PAGAN PEOPLES. 
 
The formal conversion to Christianity in 1387 of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania seemingly marked the end of Europe's last 'pagan' peoples. But the reality was different. At the margins, often under the radar, around the dusky edgelands, pre-Christian religions endured and indeed continued to flourish for an astonishing five centuries. Silence of the Gods tells, for the first time, the remarkable story of these forgotten peoples: belated adopters of Christian belief on the outer periphery of Christendom, from the Sámi of the frozen north to the Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians around the Baltic, as well as the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia's Volga-Ural Plain. These communities, Dr Young reveals, responded creatively to Christianity's challenge, but for centuries stopped short of embracing it. His book addresses why this was so, uncovering stories of fierce resistance, unlikely survival and considerable ingenuity. He revolutionises understandings of the lost religions of the last pagans.
 
Francis Young is a historian of religion and belief who was born in Bury St Edmunds and studied at Cambridge University. He is the author of 25 books and teaches for Oxford University's Department for Continuing Education.