Engaging dip into English dark ages

Excellent book that avoids the pitfalls of dullness and cloying folksiness that for me made "Old Ways" almost unbearable.

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5 people found this helpful

Fascinating listen

Occasionally pedantic, but hugely interesting and well worth sticking with. A wealth of information and lots of personal touches, with an odyssey to keep the story moving.

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3 people found this helpful

A perambulation through the UKs history

Loved this book, a great tour of the UK and islands, on boot, boat, and bike. Some great sites combined with stories, and nice to hear some archaeologists I know pop up in the narrative. Lovely work

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Interesting

The writer has done something I would have loved to have done; walked through the landscape looking for and seeing the past. I fell in love with landscape archaeology way back having discovered and read The Making of the English Landscape by WG Hoskins. Every time I have visited anywhere, I have looked for clues to the past and on occasion found them! Alas I was never able to fulfil my dream of walking some of our most historic landscape but was able to imagine doing so in a vicarious manner through this book. I had to smile at the occasional reference to ‘The Ministry of Tidy Buildings’ and the problems of so many historic sites being closed to visitors from October to Easter.

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Great book - shame about the narrator

Max Adams is a master of his subject, and I love how he tells his story. However, the narrator frequently mispronounces Northumbrian place names - I don't know about other places - and some other words, which I found very distracting

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A brilliant picture of dark age Britain & Ireland

I wasn't sure, based on the description what to expect from "The Land of Giants". The thought of a travel book with bits of history thrown in wasn't that appealing and the praise for the author's lyrical writing had me worried that it was going to be a bit like Jan Morris' Venice; enormous unpunctuated sentences and little discernible structure. I needn't have worried; this is a completely brilliant listen.

Max Adams is a practicing archeologist with a deep understanding of the obscure period between the end of the Roman occupation of Britain and the re-emergence of written records under the Saxons known as the Dark Ages. In order to describe what's known about that period (about 400 to 600 A.D.) he takes a number of tours around Britain and Ireland using two forms of transport that were available to our dark age ancestors; walking and sailing. He describes in enchanting detail a rich landscape of lost kingdoms, hilltop fortresses, fenland walkways, busy river routes and seagoing trade.

This approach is possible because the physical record; in the shape of castles, churches, grave sites and place names is still accessible despite an absence of written material from the time. In other hands this could have been dull but Adams uses his mastery of the subject matter to describe not only what we might see if we went back in time but also what's known about the tumultuous period of plagues; war; migration and religous conversion from which Offa's dyke, the legend of Arthur and current conceptions of Britain and Ireland started to emerge.

Five stars, straight back on for a second listen

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10 people found this helpful

Fascinating and enjoyable romp through Anglo-Saxon England

I bought this audio book to help me with a course I am doing on the subject. The author’s great enthusiasm for the era and his explanation of many issues has really sparked my interest and helped me with my studies

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Charming travels round Britain

This is a really nice book if you want to be taken away from the hustle and bustle of modern life. The author walks here and there around the country noting place names and landscape features and quietly explaing their historical and archaeological significance. Written and read in a chatty personal style this book is the perfect way to unwind.

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2 people found this helpful

Wonderful narrative, terrible performance

The joy of this book is that Max Adams takes you with him on his walks through history, the quality of the description is so good you feel you're there. The experience is of a long walk with a fascinating and learned companion who makes you imagine the Dark Age world in human terms. At a certain point, however, I gave up and bought the book, the narration is not good, droning, somehow faintly mocking of the writer's enthusiasm and NO idea of the correct pronunciation of a lot of the place names.

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2 people found this helpful

Disappointing

30% dark age, 70% observations about weather, sandwiches eaten, roads walked, etc, etc. Best classified as travel, not history.

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