The Celts
A Sceptical History

I clearly did not read the blurb before buying this book as I assumed it would mostly handle ancient history but I was wrong. In the 260 pages it covered the whole historical timeline of northern European people up to 2022. Because if this I felt like nothing was really covered with any depth or det......more

I wanted to like this, but Jenkins's premise, that there never really was a Celtic people, flies in this face of historical evidence to the contrary. Contrast with Marc Morris and Simon Schama, who cite reams of original sources for their English histories, and you're left with what amounts to a tre......more

A deeply perplexing book. I was already familiar with the author through his journalistic work, and usually enjoy his articles, whether I agree with him or not. Unfortunately, I am forced to the same conclusion that C. S. Lewis reached about Freud: "when he is talking off his own subject and on a su......more

I was expecting a to learn a bit more about my supposed ancestors in Britain pre Rome but got something different. It’s more of a history of Britain (& Ireland) with a much larger emphasis of the supposed ‘Celtic’ nations; Wales, Scotland, Ireland. It slows down a bit towards the middle with the medi......more

I found the book a bit confusing. It started off well and then there were jumps in topics. There was a serious lack of detail in most points and the end of the book drifted from celtic history to a broader Northern European history, specifically English history......more