A GUIDE TO BRITAIN'S PAGAN HERITAGE
By David Clarke, published by Hale at £9.99. A5-ish, 224pp. ISBN: 0-7090-5405-X
A most useful and readable book written by an archaeologist and historian who is researching a PhD in folklore. While avoiding the dead obvious (ie Glastonbury and Stonehenge - hooray!) Clarke carefully selects an interesting collection of sites both well-known (eg Tara, New Grange, Cerne Abbas, Wilmington and Avebury) and less obvious such as Lindow Moss in Cheshire (where bog body Pete Marsh was found) and Ludchurch in Staffordshire, (a candidate for the site of the Green Chapel where Sir Gawain had his return match with the Green Knight). Also covers Padstow, Windsor, Wookey Hole etc - in all some 50 sites around the British Isles in which he uses the sites and their folklore as the basis for worthwhile essays and forays into associated folklore, including an interesting theory connecting screaming skull legends will the Celtic severed head cult. All in all a good buy!