England is a lot older than many countries (say Italy, which is only around 200 years old, when it was merged from other nations). However, most history books on England (or Britain) are super-boring.
Secret Britain looks at this country of ancient wonders: not grand like the Egyptian pyramids, but containing over 70 intriguing ancient places. This book explores the mysteries behind them from an Ice Age cannibal’s skull cap to a hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold. Anthropologist Mary-Anne Ochota unearths small strange places and objects that hint at a deep enduring relationship with the mystic.
Illustrated with beautiful photographs, the wonders include buried treasure, outdoor places of worship and caves filled with medieval carvings. Explore famous sites like Stonehenge.
Also discover The Lindow Man bog body (with neatly trimmed hair and manicured fingernails, despite having been killed 2000 years ago), the Uffington White Horse (maintained by an unbroken chain of people for 3000 years) and the Wenhaston Doom painting (an extraordinary medieval depiction of the Last Judgement painted on a chancel arch).
Every step you take in Britain treads on the past. A street now filled with shops and houses might once have been a royal palace. An anonymous farmers’ field glimpsed from a car window might have borne witness to the last gasps of a bloody battle.
About the Author
Mary-Ann Ochota also gives guided walks and performs archaeological storytelling. She’s a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, hillwalking ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council and holds an MA from Cambridge University in Archaeology and Anthropology.
Mary-Ann takes us away from kings, queens and aristocratic leaders. And given us a very readable glimpse of the past, as seen through the eyes of the people who created the sites and strange finds that adorn our museums, churches and landscapes. Francis Pryor (archaeologist)
