Reading List: Britain, prior to the Saxon Invasion

Recently I had started compiling literature on the Anglo-Saxons, and I was aiming to get one book on every Anglo-Saxon king of England, followed with as many as I could find on the kings of the independent kingdoms prior to unification. That has been a mostly successful crusade and I will talk about that reading schedule in another post. It had occurred to me when compiling these books that perhaps I ought to read a history of the British Isles prior to the Saxon invasion, as there is only a short space of time to cover before reaching prehistory. It thought it would also satisfy my compulsion for continuity and order.

This is the reading list I have come up with, in order:

• ·         Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland before the Romans by Francis Pryor
• ·         Prehistoric Cumbria by David Barrowclough
• ·         The Celts by Alice Roberts
• ·         Celtic Warrior: 300bc to 100ad by Stephen Allen (Osprey)
• ·         Forts of Celtic Britain by Angus Konstam (Osprey)
• ·         Roman Britain by Harry Mengden Scarth
• ·         Boudicca's Rebellion AD 60-61 by Nic Fields (Osprey)
• ·         The Planning of Roman Roads and Walls in Northern Britain by John Poulter
• ·         Hadrian’s Wall in the days of the Romans by Ronald Embleton
• ·         Birdoswald: Roman Fort by Tony Wilmott
• ·         The British Usurpers: Carausius & Allegtus by P.J.Casey
• ·         The Reign of Arthur by Christopher Gidlow
• ·         Forts in the Age of Arthur by Angus Konstam (Osprey)
• ·         Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars by Dr David Nicolle (Osprey)

A relatively short reading list in comparison to some of my other planned schedules, especially when considering the book on Boudicca’s Rebellion is a short Osprey Campaign book of less than 100 pages, and heavily illustrated at that. I could have added more to the list as well, like Francis Pryor’s Britain AD and Tim Clarkson’s book on the Picts, but I thought I would save them for a later date. Tim Clarkson’s books will be handier if I ever decide to read the history of Scotland.

UPDATE: I have just expanded the reading list considerably, although some of the new additions are short 60-120 page Osprey books. Today I found a copy of a book on Hadrian’s Wall which is of particular interest to me as I live only a short distance away from it. However, by far the best book I found for £1 today was ‘The British Usurpers’ by P.J. Casey which documents the events in the 3^rd century when Romans Carausius & Allegtus attempted to set up their own separate government in Britain, and even went as far as minting their own coins! The book is published by Yale and is described by a professor of Trinity University as being a ‘valuable’ piece of scholarship, so I am very excited to reach this book as soon as possible.

Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson

I must first apologise for not posting anything in a long time. I had to delete and transfer the blog to this new domain because of its association with my old email address. I have also had to dedicate a lot of time to doing coursework, but despite this I have still been reading excessively and once my coursework deadlines are over at the end of this month I will start frequently creating posts. Some of the books I have read and will post about soon are Jesse Norman MPs work on Edmund Burke, Lord of the Rings/many other Tolkien books, My Life by Sir Oswald Mosley, Frankenstein, introductory books to philosophy, and more. Anyway, in late summer I read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and I thought this would be a great book to review to get back into the swing of blog writing.

Until very recently I never really touched on fiction as I didn’t see any value in it. I viewed it as an incredible waste of time as I didn’t feel any knowledge was gained upon completing the book. However, after viewing Peter Hitchens question time performance, a video which has come to be known as ‘furnish your minds’, I was successfully sold the idea that to truly be in touch with one’s nation one must understand its literature as well as history. I have a lot of catching up to do. I had read Dracula a year or two ago, but aside from that I had never really touched any other fiction of historic value; so when I seen a copy of Treasure Island in a charity shop for £1 I snapped it up. I thought it would be a perfect place to start, and that it would be a nice short read alongside The Life of Enoch Powell.

The opening chapters were brilliant. The atmosphere of the ‘Admiral Benbow’ Inn was immense, and I really grew to like the character of Billy Bones, only for him then to be stolen away by the Sea Cooks minions early on. The true genius of this book however, rests on the character of Long John Silver, who is ruthless, sly and charismatic. So charismatic that he wins the reader over at multiple times only to reveal his true intentions and leave you feeling embarrassed at getting drawn in. His shining example of this is in the chapter set in the stockade in which he musters all his wordsmith abilities to squash a mutiny and simultaneously keep safe their captive –the hero cabin boy Jim Hawkins- who Silvers crew would like very much to execute for his continued meddling in their designs. At first glance one believes that Silver may actually have pulled through as a hidden hero and is saving the life of Jim Hawkins out of kindness, but just as he’s managed to reel you in, you discover the true intentions of his motivations. Without giving too much away, his move can only be described as an insurance policy.

This was a great book to read while taking a break from reading the mammoth book of Enoch Powell and it has now found a place in my nostalgia bank, due to my frequently retiring to the garden shed with a bowl of pipe tobacco to indulge in it. I would certainly recommend anyone how has a love of his nation’s literature to get this one under the belt.