The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale

"The Britannias journeys from Neolithic ruins in Orkney, across the Isle of Wight, Iona, the Channel Islands and even Bermuda to present-day Thanet and Westminster, exploring the topography, stories, legends, ancient sites and forgotten characters of the British Isles. One of the things that stood out is that Alice Albinia goes beyond the well-worn, male-focused view of the past and highlights female histories that have been overlooked or shut down. I’d enjoyed her previous book, Empires of the Indus , so was particularly keen to read this one. From a writer’s point of view, she does an incredible amount of research and uses a huge array of sources: myths, poetry, Roman literature, newspapers, plus first-hand interviews and her own travels. Yes. It’s one of the themes that came out of the pandemic, which forced us all to look inwards and examine the areas we live in or that we think of as familiar. I know I certainly did that during the lockdown in 2020. It can be a rewarding and enlightening experience—I learned a huge amount about the history, culture, myths and legends of Britain from this book."