The review of my book "The Bluestone Enigma" has now appeared in the June 2009 edition of "Antiquity". Details here:
Volume: 83 Number: 320 Page: 547–548
Book Review
Olwen Williams-Thorpe
Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK (Email: o.williams-thorpe@open.ac.uk)
Brian John. The bluestone enigma: Stonehenge, Preseli and the Ice Age. 160 pages, 57 b&w & colour illustrations. 2008. Newport: Greencroft Books; 978-0-905559-89-6 paperback £9.95.
It's interesting that the Editor felt obliged to put a preamble at the beginning of the review to explain that the review was by somebody "sympathetic to the thesis" that the bluestones were carried by glacier ice. It was like a sort of health warning, to ensure that no reader should become contaminated by these outrageous ideas! The word "patronising" comes to mind. Does the archaeology establishment not think that the readers of a respectable journal like "Antiquity" are capable of deciding for themselves what to believe and what not to believe? All very petty -- but I suppose one must be grateful that the Editor did at least decide to feature a review. Most of the other journal editors who were sent review copies have refused to give the book so much as a mention. There are probably many members of the archaeology establishment who think that books like mine should be thrown onto a bonfire, along with the heretical authors who wrote them........
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