New book on THE OLD STONES

The front cover -- that's funny -- on my copy it says there are 1,000+ sites.  

Perhaps it has grown......

Now to something more positive.  Andy Burnham's new book -- promised for a very long time -- is at last ready.  And a very splendid book it is too.  Details:

Burnham, Andy (ed) 2018.   THE OLD STONES -- a field guide to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland.  Watkins.  416 pp. £29.99.  ISBN 9781786781543.

Large format, full colour throughout, beautifully designed, and a feast for the eye.  The design is a particular strong point -- and I speak as a publisher.   The pages are meticulously laid out, with each section identified by colour, with clear colour photos (and some maps) relating to over 1,000 key sites.  There is a helpful introductory chapter by Vicki Cummings, and after that, in the meat of the book, there are 8 more chapters, based on countries and mega-regions.  The descriptions of sites (all are located on base maps) are brief and to the point, and pleasingly matter-of-fact. We see locations and nearest villages, and assorted quirky quotations. Fantasies and wildly unsupported narratives are mercifully missing, and while differences of interpretation are frequently noted, balance is always maintained.  In a sense, this is old-fashioned archaeology which gives us the facts and which leaves us to visit these sites -- many of them in amazing and beautiful locations -- and decide for ourselves what they mean.  This respect for competing theories is something which marks Andy's "Magalthic Portal" web and blog site as well.

There is a Foreword by Prof Mike Parker Pearson, in which he cannot resist talking about the labour required to move lots of bluestones from Wales to Stonehenge -- but on the whole his words are well chosen and admirably restrained........  Within each chapter there are a number of specialist short articles (normally one page long) contributed by invited researchers.  I contributed a short piece on the glacial transport theory, and there are a number of other articles which might cause raised eyebrows within the archaeological establishment -- but that's all to the good.

There is a useful index.  The reading list is rather scanty, I think, for a book of this size, but that's a very minor gripe.

This is not a cheap nook -- you only get a penny back from £30 -- but it is destined to become the standard reference work, part glossary, part compendium, part encyclopaedia, part beautiful coffee table book.  One of my favourites -- looking good alongside "Exploring Avebury" by Steve Marshall.

I wish the book all the best -- it deserves to sell in large quantities.