Who were the first Britons, and what sort of world did they occupy?
In A History of Ancient Britain, much-loved historian Neil Oliver
turns a spotlight on the very beginnings of the story of Britain; on the
first people to occupy these islands and their battle for survival.
There has been human habitation in Britain, regularly interrupted by Ice
Ages, for the best part of a million years. The last retreat of the
glaciers 12,000 years ago brought a new and warmer age and with it, one
of the greatest tsunamis recorded on Earth which struck the north-east
of Britain, devastating the population and flooding the low-lying plains
of what is now the North Sea. The resulting island became, in time, home
to a diverse range of cultures and peoples who have left behind them
some of the most extraordinary and enigmatic monuments in the world.
Through what is revealed by the artefacts of the past, Neil Oliver
weaves the epic story - half a million years of human history up to the
departure of the Roman Empire in the Fifth Century AD. It was a period
which accounts for more than ninety-nine per cent of humankind's
presence on these islands.
It is the real story of Britain and of her people.
