Surprising Read!

I began listening to this book purely based on the King Arthur reference as I am currently interested in post Roman British history. This isn't a book about King Arthur exclusively. The authors' military background offered fascinating insights into how Britain was being shaped at the time largely based on the many dyke systems present in England and how they were created and used from a military perspective. We learn that they are far more numerous than many believe and are largely ignored by historians and archaeologists. A question I am now exploring! My one gripe was not content related but that the narrator's pronunciation of personal and place names was poor. In a book referencing so many old British and Welsh names it was frustrating to hear this repeatedly when a simple Google search can often remedy this these days. It's often the case in many audio books. There was even a mispronunciation of Tintagel that initially made me second guess my own pronounciation of the English language!

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fascinating insight

The authors new approach cast a huge light on the dark ages. But you need a map to follow his observations.

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Superb study

I really enjoyed this insightful study of this very interesting period in our history.

Very informative and interesting.

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Good Listening -and that's its biggest flaw.

If you are at all seriously interested in this topic then do yourself a favour and buy the hard copy book or invest in a lifetime's subscription to the fine grain ONS maps and Google Earth. This audible badly badly needs a pdf with all the relevant diagrams, maps etc Even as a Brit I haven't heard of 2/3s the places, tracks and dykes he cites and its hard for a layman, for whom a dyke is not any kind of earthwork, to visualize things from his descriptions. On a related note his constant use of Imperial measurements reeks somewhat gammony and less of academic necessity.
As to the correctness of his theories I don't know enough about the period in question to even hazard a guess , however I suspect his 'soldiers eye' is probably more right than it is wrong. He certainly presents a very rational and well thought out case and his theories deserve far more attention from other scholars than google would lead me to suspect they have had.
He posits that Camelot was infact Colchester (Gawd help us all!) and on that point he , not being a Dr of medieval lit, he needed to back up his claims with evidence from philologists and other experts. Again I suspect he may be right but he is well outside his academic comfort zone on that one.
He could also use some help in composing his narrative . As another reviewer says ' if I have to listen to the * exact * measurements of yet another dyke'.
But all-in-all a rewarding listen and I have certainly learnt something from it. He needs to borrow Michael Wood's jacket and helicopter and do a TV series!

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Tedious

Very academic and has a weak narrative. The author spends the first chapter criticising other authors and scholars.

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5 people found this helpful