Over the years I have been to many of the places in the book. I remember driving up from Stonehenge to look at the concrete marker posts that is all there is to see at nearby woodhenge, then going on to Durrington, where despite the map showing a huge earthwork all I could see were Army buildings. Then there was the creepy Knowlton rings, and the magnificent Avebury. I guess being a bit of a henge freak I should have loved this book, in fact I nearly gave up reading it part way through...
This is a popular book and just tries too hard to be popular. I hated the way that chapters would begin on one tack and then suddenly and often crudely, change direction, this is a work of fact not fiction. Finally about half way through the book settles down and tells a more or less continuous narrative and a very interesting one at that. I was fascinated to learn that 'lost' Beckhampton Avenue at Avebury has been found and amazed at the ambiguity of radiocarbon dates. Next time you see a radiocarbon date branded about ask to see the standard deviation.
Century London, 404 pages
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