Description

An invigorating journey through Britain’s prehistoric landscape, and an insight into the lives of its inhabitants.
‘Highly compelling’ Spectator, Books of the Year

‘An evocative foray into the prehistoric past’ BBC Countryfile Magazine

‘Vividly relating what life was like in pre-Roman Britain’ Choice Magazine

‘Makes life in Britain BC often sound rather more appealing than the frenetic and anxious 21st century!’ Daily Mail

In Scenes from Prehistoric Life, the distinguished archaeologist Francis Pryor paints a vivid picture of British and Irish prehistory, from the Old Stone Age (about one million years ago) to the arrival of the Romans in AD 43, in a sequence of fifteen profiles of ancient landscapes. Whether writing about the early human family who trod the estuarine muds of Happisburgh in Norfolk c.900,000 BC, the craftsmen who built a wooden trackway in the Somerset Levels early in the fourth millennium BC, or the Iron Age denizens of Britain’s first towns, Pryor uses excavations and surveys to uncover the daily routines of our ancient ancestors. By revealing how our prehistoric forebears coped with both simple practical problems and more existential challenges, Francis Pryor offers remarkable insights into the long and unrecorded centuries of our early history, and a convincing, well-attested and movingly human portrait of prehistoric life as it was really lived.

Publisher Review

PRAISE FOR FRANCIS PRYOR: 'Pryor is especially able in conveying the dynamism of prehistory, with its constant changes, both of the form of individual monuments and in broader patterns of ritual behaviour and architectural fashion' TLS, on Stonehenge. '[Francis Pryor's] enthusiasm is infectious, whether he's glimpsing Ely cathedral from a train, coming across John Clare's grave or counting the bricks of Tattershall Castle' The Spectator, on The Fens. 'An immersive journey through the landscape, saturated with local history and personal insight ... It will inspire you to explore the locations on foot' Country Walking, on The Fens. 'Beautifully written and illustrated' Mail on Sunday, on Stonehenge. 'Written with pace and passion ... Immensely readable' -- Tom Holland, on Britain BC