Publisher's Synopsis
The British Isles cradles astonishing beauty. The human story here is a million years old, and counting. But the tolerant, easygoing peace we enjoy has been hard won. We have made and known the best and worst of times. We have been hero and villain and we have learned some lessons. Beginning with footprints made in the sand by humankind's earliest ancestors, Neil takes us via Romans and Vikings, the flowering of religion, through civil war, industrial revolution and two world wars. From windswept headlands to battlefields, ancient trees to magnificent cathedrals, each of his destinations is a place where, somehow, the spirit of the past seems to linger. Beautifully written, this book is majestic, awe-inspiring, a kaleidoscopic history of a place with a story like no other.
