Don't whisper too loudly, but I have just had another order for stock at Stonehenge, just over 3 months since the last supply was sent off. So sales at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre must certainly have increased. Very gratifying. That means that some of the punters who turn up there are at least prepared to contemplate the possibility that the standard story as represented in all the other books might not actually be true........
10 comments:
Well done Brian!.........also, some of the English Heritage archaeology staff are at least open-minded as to how the Dickens those bluestones fetched up somewhere in the stone- gathering catchment area of Stonehenge. Not only has the previously accepted provenance of the sarsen stones (26 miles away on the Marlborough Downs) been questioned by some of E.H.'s own current staff (viz, David Field and Pearson) in a recent publication, but they are also studying more seriously the varied geological make-up of the so-called bluestone collection arond Stonehenge, with the considerable help of Rob Ixer and Richard Bevin's geological analysis.
....and haven't you also received a request from the Wiltshire Heritage Museum at Devizes for another order for stock of "Bluestone Enigma"? This important Wiltshire Museum has recently also received welcome Lottery Fund backing, just as has the soon-to-be-built Stonehenge Visitor Centre at Airman's Corner.
Good to know that there is now room for all points of view in the books sold at both these important Wiltshire sites.
I heard that the tables outside were a bit 'wobbly' - so they needed a good solid prop.
Melvyn Bragg
My book is far too thin and flimsy top prop up a table properly. But "Science and Stonehenge" is just right for such a task.....
Just wondering WHICH "Science and Stonehenge" book you had in mind for the task: Cunliffe's or Ruggles', to name but two?
And Melvyn, how about having Brian on your "In Our Time" slot on BBC Radio 4, as one of the contributors to a programme with the title "Science and Stonehenge"?
There are props and then again, of course, there are props....
Max Boyce
I was thinking of the big "definitive" one by Cunliffe and Renfrew, with those chapters by James Scourse and Chris Green, and a lot else besides.
And I doubt that our Melvyn Bragg is the same one who has all those erudite programmes on the wireless......!!
Tony -- I think the Museum has only ever ordered 5 copies of the book -- which is not going to make me either famous or rich! But following your kind words in their ear, I am sending them an inquiry -- just to see whether they need any more!
...and then there are Max Boyces, and other Max Boyces.....
Good to hear you are asking Wiltshire Heritage Museum if they would like some further copies. Diann, the Shop Manager there, did recently tell me she would certainly take some more, and had indeed read it herself. So you may not become either rich or famous, but at least your point of view, as distinct from the standard Stonehenge story, will be disseminated and shared just a little bit more!! I'm all in favour of that, and I thought that was your main hope too?
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