History Bluff

[caddyman]

It occurs to me that while I have a reasonable acquaintance with English history, my knowledge of the past in Scotland, Wales and Ireland is defined only by how it intersects with England.

So: you’re an edumacated lot out there; recommendations would be appreciated for good books on the other three portions of our British Isles (by which I mean the geographical, not them political entity). I only ask that they are readable. Far too may historians manage to suck the joy out of their subject by making it drier than a pharaoh’s sock.

Vielen Dank.

Comments

[pauln.livejournal.com]

I found "The Isles: A History" by Norman Davies pretty good. Looks at the entire history of hte British Archipelago, that of the various states that have inhabited them and relations between them and puts into a wider context (eg the invader of 1066 is Guillaume le Batarde and his successors are referred to by French names for the next couple of hundred years).

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

You mean there's more to the British Isles than England???

[ladkyis.livejournal.com]

A series of novels by Edith Pargeter (she wrote the Cadfael books as Ellis Peters)
The Brothers of Gwynedd series - Sunrise in the West, Dragon At Noonday, Hounds at Sunset, Afterglow and Nightfall. If you would like to borrow these I have them.
The Heaven Tree Trilogy is about the welsh/english border country - The Heaven Tree, The Green Branch, The Scarlet Seed.

I find most history books too dry unless you have insomnia, they work then. I have found that by reading good fiction and Edith pargeter is good, I gain more knowledge and can then refine my further reading from the list of books used for research for the novels

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

What's a celtic Briton ?

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Aboriginal?

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

Not pedantic, I just like to poke this issue as it's so roundly abused by almost everyone all of the time.

Course it doesn't apply to me as I have paperwork signed in triplicate by a mammoth stating that my forbears came across on the last landbridge.

"It's a cultural distinction, rather than a genetic one. You English chaps can read it as 'native,' if you like"

Still not getting it : )

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

I'll leave it there as this is something that would go on for ages. But let's pick it up next time we are in a room together : )

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

When I was in a Bostonian bookshop (the US Boston, not the Lincolnshire one) I saw many, many books on Ireland and Scotland that look termendously good, maybe one of them would suit. After all nobody has a more unbalanced view of those two nations than the US !!!

Sorry that's no help. I did read a civil war book recently that had loads of good stuff on scottish politics at the time but I can't remember the title