Mysterious Britain: Ancient Secrets of the United Kingdom and Ireland by Janet BordMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
The phrase, the past is a foreign country is completely true when you venture way back into English history. There are strange standing stones and circles that are still visible in the landscape, ancient earthworks, churches with pagan marks and wells that still have ritual significance even today. Even though modern archaeological techniques and science can go some way to explaining the sites, there is still so much we do not know or can even comprehend.
When this was published way back in 1974 they knew even less then, but there was plenty of speculation as to the origins of the stones, burials and henges. Some of the suggestions in here as to the original purpose of the place would not even be entertained now, for example there is way too much nonsense on UFO's and Ley Lines. Hence it is now quite outdated, but I have had it sitting on a shelf for a decade and a half and though I had better read it. Extracting it from there reminded me a little of Time Team! What I did like though were the photos of the places, they harked back to a time before visitor centres and information boards and were often quite atmospheric.
View all my reviews
Oh dear, when I saw the topic and then scanned down to the date I thought "ooh, ley lines" and there they were. Did they find symbols in field boundaries, too? But I love the idea of those simpler pictures from a pre-visitors-centre time!
ReplyDeleteI am more than happy to pop this in the post if you fancy a read
Delete