Christmas so often disappoints us. And why not? How could it ever live up to the sappy and maudlin presentations it suffers so often on TV, in the movies, even in commercials! Along comes Dylan Thomas (well he came along a while ago) and captures elements of the holiday that we can still live today. There is a town shut up against the cold with the occasional hardy soul braving the elements. There are families, rich in generations, sharing a day punctuated more by the telling of tales than the exchange of gifts. There are children overcoming their own fears of the unknown to give "Good King Wenceslaus" to a spectral figure behind a closed door. And there lies, on the final page and in the final line, an ending that captures all of what is best in the holiday and, maybe, what is best in all of us. Granted, until you hear the poet himself read this work, you will never capture the full effect, but you will come close. And you may be more ready for Christmas than you have ever been before.

Dylan Thomas' 'A Child's Christmas in Wales' in it's second print for generations has become an enchanting, simple poetic tale captured in the eyes of a child. The language is delightfully entrancing and the poetry shines with a heavenly radiance. Thomas' style captures an adult's warm memory of a holiday-season that reflects presents, good things to eat, and when it was just right, white blanket of new snow with all it's wonder and the mischief of snowball battles and any exaggeration that moves that will spark the imagination of a child.

This second edition of Thomas' magical tale is lavishly illustration with old-fashioned, scratchboard-like engravings by Fritz Eichenberg. Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales in 1914. He began writing poetry at a very young age and published his first book, '18 Poems' at twenty. From 1943 until his death he broadcasted his own radio talk program on BBC. He read poetry selections, participated in table discussions, and read dramas and essays. His voice became familiar with Americans in the 1950s during his lecture tours at American universities. He had achieved an admirable audience for his poetry. Besides this book and his poetry his other most widely read works are 'Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog,' 'Quite Early One Morning' and his play, 'Under Milk Wood.'

'A Child's Christmas in Wales' is Thomas' most fine work of art-with it's human quality, touching sentiment, easily understood presentation and child-like wisdom that gives Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' a second glance at holiday tradition. After all we can all find a child in Christmas in all of us.

Dylan Thomas' imagery and prose invoke the secular feelings of Christmas like no other book. His floating word-pictures are both vague and precise, inviting the reader's imagination to fill in the blanks. Thomas creates the sensations of memory--blurred, idiosyncratic, and suffused with impression:

"There were church bells, too"
"Inside them?"
"No, no, no, in the bat-black, snow-white belfries, tugged by bishops and storks. And they rang their tidings over the bandaged town, over the frozen foam of the powder and ice-cream hills, over the crackling sea."

Fortunately, the dreamlike imagery never weighs down the book. Instead, Thomas wishes only to convey the warmth, humor, and imagination of his childhood Christmases in Wales. Although this is great modernist literature, it is completely unpretentious and can be enjoyed by all ages. The book seems longer than it is, perhaps because Thomas' depictions linger warmly after one reads about the Christmas fire, the smoking Uncles and drinking aunts, the presents ("...and a celluloid duck that made, when you pressed it, a most unducklike sound, a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow"), the dinner, the caroling at the large strange house where "the wind through the trees made noises as of old and unpleasant and maybe webfooted men in caves," the music, and the soft bedtime.

These episodes are generally no longer than a page each, but they graft onto our own memories--or would-be memories--of what Christmas could or should be like. In sum, it's a pleasure for the both the intellect and the senses, an unsentimental yet warm treat for both young and older audiences. It's one of the truest--and therefore most satisfying--Christmas books you'll ever read.

Is Paris Burning? is one of the best books that Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins have wrote together. A huge job, a piece of history novel, good as only a few can be, with a great work of investigation; interviews with people like General Dietrich von Choltitz, (who recieved the order from Adolf Hitler, to burn Paris, in case that the defense couldn't be accomplish) or for example the Chief of Operations in Europe, the General Dwight Eisenhower. As usual in their books, Lapierre and Collins, put the reader inside of one of the most importants chapters in the history of the XX century, the liberation of Paris, with precisions of days, hours, and places. The order of Hitler, the beginning of the resistance, the slow arrival of the allied, the clear disobedience of General Von Choltitz.... in fact, a crucial moment in the history of one of the most beautiful citys in the world, a turning point in the development of the Second World War. A different way to learn history.

Puts flesh on the bones of a remarkable group, including Generals Patton, Bradley, Eisenhower and Von Coltitz, writers Hemingway and Sartre, and political figures Roosevelt, Hitler and DeGaulle. Numerous anecdotes from the occupation and liberation brings history to life. Tales of moonlit parachute drops, secret codes and Molotov cocktails remain with the reader, long after the book is completed. Like the last Metro train before curfew for Parisians under Nazi rule, this book is not be missed.

The book is very well written, as have been their previous books, like Freedom at midnight. It covers fairly objectively aspects of the city's liberation very well. It makes you fall in love with Paris, if not anything else. Any student of military history and french history must not miss it. Well done lads

I believe that this book is the definitive work on the reality of the battle of Jutland and the demographics that existed in the Royal Navy in the years leading up to that conflict. I personally concentrated on the description of events in the battle, rather than the Naval background, and found it to be the ONLY work that I have read that addressed the personalities involved in an objective manner. The analysis of the battle movements, loss of ships and relative positioning is without peer. At last, a clear picture emerged from the confusion created by earlier works. I could not commend this book highly enough for anyone interesed in this naval engagement or its background.

This is a quite epic narrative history, which reads with the facility and pace of a well-constructed thriller. It is at once a social history of the Royal Navy that spans the Ironclad, Dreadnought and Great War eras, a dissertation on naval signalling and fleet-handling in a period of unprecedented technical innovation, a reflection on the challenges and stresses of leadership and a thrilling account of the Battle of Jutland from a British perspective. The book opens with a quite thrilling account of the opening phase of the battle, in which technical and human complexities are treated with equal aplomb, then breaks off - leaving the reader all but white knuckled - at the moment the German High Seas Fleet appears on the scene and forces Beatty's Battle Cruiser Force and Fifth Battle Squadron to turn northwards. It might seem an anti-climax to be diverted from this drama to the controversies that dominated the Navy in the Late-Victorian and Edwardian periods but this part of the story, with its splendidly delineated cast of larger-than-life characters, is no less gripping, especially in view of its ultimate relevance to command and control decisions at the potentially climactic encounter at Jutland. The third part of the book returns to the battle itself, with the arrival of Jellicoe's Battle Fleet, the main clash and the subsequent night action and German escape. The complexities of naval manoeuvre have seldom been so clearly portrayed in print, with excellent use being made of simple diagrams for illustration, and colour and pace are lent to the narrative by many well-chosen extracts from survivor's accounts, ranging from the light-hearted to the outright ghastly. This was indeed a battle where there was no mid-point between unscathed survival and horrific injury. The story is told almost exclusively from the Royal Navy viewpoint - that indeed of a British participant - and, thought this adds great immediacy, readers will need to look elsewhere for a more detailed account of the German movements. The final part of the book is in many ways the saddest, detailing the recriminations, self-justifications and personal tragedies involving the main participants after the war. A postscript that deals with the problem of intelligence overload as a purely Naval concern will be found by many readers to have singular relevance to large modern organisations employing E-Mail! This is, in summary, a quite magnificent piece of work and a delight for enthusiasts of naval history. The only mild criticism that might be made is that the writer has omitted to discuss how experience from the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese Wars might have influenced Royal Naval thinking on visual signalling and fleet control under battle conditions. Japanese experience might be assumed to have been of particular relevance in view of the strong Royal Navy influence on Japanese naval development - and of the presence on Togo's flagship at Tsu-Shima of Captain William Packenham, who later commanded the 2nd. Battle Cruiser Squadron at Jutland. This minor gripe aside one can but long for more from the pen of Mr.Gordon.

The Rules of the Game adds to our under- standing of those factorsin the battle of Jutland which make it such a fascinating example of the "fog of war" and the mind-sets of commanders hobbled by tradition and their own preconceptions. Gordon explores the backgrounds of the various British admirals -- Jellicoe, Beatty, Evan-Thomas, etc --who commanded elements of the Grand Fleet. The book's format is unusual: it begins with an account of the opening phases of the battle, then backtracks 100 years, delving into the personalities and events which shaped the Royal Navy after Trafalgar. The author has his heroes and bete-noirs -- those who attempted to bring realism into fleet maneuvers and those who could see no farther than the shine on a ship's binnacle. The Victoria sinking of 1893 and the deqath of Admiral Tryon played a major role, according to Gordon, in arresting evolutionary practices in ship handling and signalling. Midway through the book, we get back to the battle, which is clearly described , although not in such detail as accounts by Corbett and Marder. The author obviuosly has access to new material, which he utilizes to present us with new perspectives on both British and German command decisions. I highly recommend this book to any student of naval history for its intelligent use of sources, clarity of writing, and thoughtful conclusions

This book, and others by this author, enriched my childhood enormously. As an only child who yearned for adventure, I identified with Kate - as a rather quiet child, I admired and envied both her high spirits and her kind heart. I longed to visit the vast plains of Hungary, so beautifully described and illustrated by Kate Seredy, and to wade in that dangerous river, wear all those petticoats and high red boots, ride a beautiful milky-white horse, and eat delicious sausages, just like Kate did! And Jancsi - who ever had a cousin as wonderful as he? Jancsi's parents' tolerant wisdom, humor and love warmed me as a young reader. In retrospect, I can now clearly see that Kate was not the only child transformed by "the good master"...I also was changed. For life: I became a children's librarian and thus was able to recommend this and so many other good books to literally thousands of children and their families over the years. This is a marvelous book in every way. Highly recommended.

I want to echo the comments made by the other reviewers about this outstanding children's book. I was introduced to this wonderful book by my 4th grade teacher who read it to my class in 1980. One would think that a book written in the 1930's and set on the Hungarian plains in the years just before WWI would not appeal to "modern" children. Yet the entire class loved it. I loved it so much that I later read it several times on my own. This book helped instill in me a deep love of reading which I still have over nineteen years later.

A well-deserved winner of the Newbery Honor Award, "The Good Master" is a forgotten classic. Kate Seredy's work is nowhere near as popular with children as are the works of Blume, Cleary, Dahl, and Wilder. It's a shame because "The Good Master" was as good a book as I ever read as a child and I was also a huge fan of the books of all those other authors. Jansci and Cousin Kate from Budapest deserve to be considered along with Peter and Fudge, Henry, Ramona, and Ribsy, Charlie and Willy Wonka, and the Ingalls family as among the greatest characters in children's fiction.

"The Good Master" is a wonderful book for children (adults, too!) Set in Hungary, it is the story of Jancsi and his cousin Kate, who comes from the city to live with Jancsi's family in the country. Jancsi has been looking forward to having a playmate, but Kate is not exactly what he expected. She is spoiled, wild, and their description of her as a "screaming monkey" is not far off the mark. After a rocky start, Jancsi and Kate learn to get along, and from there they become fast friends. They have plenty of adventures. For example, you will enjoy their trips to the fair and the circus; traditional Hungarian Easter and Christmas celebrations; a horse roundup; Kate's experience with some gypsies; and plenty more. Through the book Kate goes from spoiled and totally bratty to much more caring and kind- though she never loses her high spirits! This is an appealing book because it is so simple and wholesome. Also, since children love stories, "The Good Master" is filled with old stories and tales that the adults in the book tell to Jancsi and Kate. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has grade-school-age children... get it for them! They'll love it!

I bought this book because I am interested in the early history of book publishing. I had never heard of Michael Servetus and found his story fascinating. What a brilliant man. And what an unlucky man!! How could anyone be so smart and so stupid at the same time? He managed to figure out how blood circulates before anyone else, and then buries this info in a treatise against the belief in the trinity! Most of his books were destroyed (along with him), but a few managed to survive. The story of that survival is also fascinating. The biggest question I had, and it is one that no one can answer, is why when Servetus managed to get away from the inquisition did he run to Geneva, where his bitter enemy Calvin was waiting to burn him?? Just about the only thing the Catholic church and Calvin agreed on was that Servetus should die. This book is, thus, also about a time with attitudes that are incomprehensible to most of us....a time when people wanted to murder others for not believing the same. No one seemed to honor freedom of conscience! So, this book was very interesting, told me about someone I had not heard of, and described a very tense time in the history of western religion. I highly recommend it.

What a fascinating book. It is superbly written and almost impossible to put down. Nonfiction history books that read like bestselling thrillers are hard to find indeed. But that is definitely the case here.

Throughout the ages, how many individuals have markedly changed the world we live in, yet are not found in most history books? The name Michael Servetus is one that should be known by any serious student of Western Civilization, yet sadly his story has been missed by so many historians.

Kudos to the authors for a job well done.

Out of the Flames tells several stories. First it traces the life and remarkable career of Michael Servetus, a lesser-known but highly important Reformation leader who ran afoul of John Calvin for his views on the Trinity and predestination. His death by burning was accompanied by a rounding up of all the copies of his book Christianismi Restitutio for similar destruction. The authors also describe the long tangled provenances of the three copies of Servetus' work which still exist. Throughout the book the authors are often diverted into fascinating tangents which add light to either Servetus' life and work or to the circumstances under which the three copies survived.

Out of the Flames will not only inspire you with the story of Michael Servetus and his stubborn devotion to his heretical views, (and to his remarkable scientific and anatomical knowledge) but will also impress and intrigue with the amount of research the Goldstones did in order to track down the three copies.

This a memoir of Carlo Levi`s experience as a political exile during the fascist regime, at the outset of the Abyssinian war. The setting is a remote village in Lucania, southern Italy, a region characterized by poverty, malaria, completely forgotten and neglected by the State. Levi's artistic sensitivity describes the people, the landscape, with an acute human feeling. This is the other side of Italy, the reverse of the rich, famous, well-developed North. After reading this book, it is easy to understand why so many Italians were tempted to emigrate to the American continent. Levi's ability to socialize and understand the peasant mentality is outstanding; it's a merit to his personality. The fact that he did not isolate himself from the people around the village, regardless of social and cultural level, enable him, after his realease, to write this book with a deep understanding of the social, political, religious, economical, and cultural problems of Southern Italy. The style is simple, direct, and elegant. Why Christ, why Eboli? the author only wants to say that the "civilized world" of Christianity has not reached this region of Italy, be it in Eboli or any other village of the South. An interesting book, written by someone whose main occupation in life was not be a writer. Levi was trained as a doctor, and as a "social doctor" he brush-stroked his thoughts into this memoir.

Although he possessed rhetorical power and artistic proficiency, the true strength of Levi's early work Christ Stopped at Eboli flows from his capacity to love. Certainly he could not succor people as Christ did. Nevertheless, Levi helped to impart at least a portion of divine charity to the people of Lucania. Much has changed since the era of fascism, but there is something lasting in Levi's descriptions of Southern Italy. In some ways this portrait in prose is a caustic criticism of political negligence and indifference, but more precisely it is a profound meditation on the ubiquitous longing for human sympathy. Out of this meditation there arises not only an appreciation for the farmers of Gagliano and the surrounding villages, but also a hope that Christ did not stop at Eboli. In other words, Christ descended below all things; the descension of the political prisoner was simply a metaphor for the suffering and compassion of Christ. Christ Stopped at Eboli will satiate the curiosity of anyone who is interested in Italian culture. I recommend this book to such readers, and to anyone who is human.

Carlo Levi as a gifted artist wrote about what he saw. It must be objective for its virtual universal acceptance by scholars and other readers. Certainly it is artistically and beautifully presented. It is an example of objective aesthetics.

For Mr. Martino to advise us in his earlier review that Gagliano and its ilk are not the same as in the 1940's and are now nice places with mature, decent, religious people, is a bit superfluous. Who cares? We are only interested in what was contemporary with Carlo Levi's being there, not what it is like now. Apparently Mr. Martino feels that Levi's book competes with his little travel narrative.

Christ Stopped at Eboli is a classic and an educational fun read. Perhaps it will help those in the future fear fascism enough to prevent it from rearing its ugly head.

Stolen From Gypsies is an incredibly creative and fun-filled take on the classic love story. Noble Smith has created a rich and detailed fantasy world for his "book within a book" while loading the "real" world of the narrator with juicy historical tidbits. Part of the fun of the book for me was translating the invented words with the helpful glossary in the back of the book. I laughed out loud at many points during the day it took me to devour this charming book. The humor is lavished over every word, but the book is not a hollow series of comic "interlewds" (to quote one of the characters); the central messages of looking beyond surface impressions, of faith in one's self, and of relishing the beautiful in the absurd are timeless and important. Who doesn't need to be reminded of these things from time to time? Calling it a comic fairy tale for adults is about as close as I can come to categorizing Stolen From Gypsies; it defies categorization while remaining totally accessible. I highly recommend Noble Smith's Stolen From Gypsies.

This is easily the most satisfying tale I've read in a very long time. Rambunctious and witty, vastly imaginative, racingly-paced, and always downright funny, Stolen from Gypsies is a book for anyone who loves a great yarn spun with great skill. The author is drunk like a lord on the rich, mad joy of the English language itself, but not only can he hold his liquor, he turns the wildness of our words, old and new, into pure, narrative gold. This book is no spare, dry, modern comment on our brief, contemporary moment; it's a hot-blooded, hip-wading, sly-winking romp through the rich, roiling tradition of hundreds of years of broadly comic tale-telling. Full of exaggerated characters with outrageous names who do, say, and think extraordinary things, and written with appreciable literary and historical wisdom and wit, this story is firmly rooted in what everyone will recognize and appreciate as the ancient tradition of classically good storytelling.

Have you been yearning for an irrepresibly laugh-out-loud tale which steeps you in history and adventure, cozies you near and dear to absurd characters, bashes you good-naturedly about the head with old English slang, and goads you into turning the pages in equal measure of curiosity, surprise, and happy contentment of perhaps the most familiar, well-loved experience language can give us--the pleasure of a great story wondrously unfolding? Then you'll love this book; it's a true pleasure.

Post-note for all you hybridization fans: think Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like the Sun" (a brilliant masterpiece) crossed with something more outright comic--the Monty Python movie epics will have to do for now. Maybe another reader will come up with the perfect title here...

A completely first-rate novel, sublime in richly historical hysterical characterizations. In his first novel, Noble Smith fashions a completely original story-within-a-story. The subject, a smart and thumping love story which leaves you both wildly entertained, expanded in your vocabulary, and just a little more informed about the wild turns of history which by only the smallest chance may have turned out quite different for all of us.
Smith's 'Gypsy' character breathes hope into our sometimes gray hearts that we all have, deep inside of us, an erudite, bold gypsy inner-being longing to break free from the humps which define us to sing our passions to the world. The story is told smartly through a decrepit writer-in-exile's re-telling of this fantastic story to his servant. With joy we watch the transformation both he and his main character makes throughout the book, tying up spectacularly in the end.
Stolen By Gypsies is a read which will keep you on the edge of your seat, as empassioned as the Gypsy character who is striving to become his complete self. Highly recommended reading. Waiting anxiously for his next novel.

Luke Howard was an amateur in the true sense of the word; Luke Howard named the clouds for the love of them. Richard Hamblyn does a fine job telling the story of Luke Howard's life, his naming of the clouds, and Howard's milieu in the book The Invention Of Clouds. Howard, a Quaker and a pharmacist, went from unknown working man to celebrity when he presented his paper "On The Modifications Of Clouds" to the Askesian Society in London on a night in December of 1802. The paper had the right combination of insights, poetry, and luck to insure that the terms cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus [or derivatives] are still being used by meteorologists today. Hamblyn's weave of biography, history, art, and science was enjoyable to read and held together most of the time [Chapter 10: The Beaufort Scale was not as well connected to book as the rest of the material]. The hardback is such a beautiful and unusual book, I shelved my copy, waited for the paperback to read it, and then donated the paperback to the high school library. I highly recommend The Invention Of Clouds to anyone with an interest in meteorology, history, Quakerism, or biography.

"The Invention of Clouds" is an endearing little book about a generally forgotten moment in the history of science. It seems obvious to us today but until Englishman Luke Howard, a chemist with an interest in the then-young science of meteorology, gave a public lecture on cloud classification in London in 1802, nobody had been able to categorize cloud formations in an easily-understood and consistent manner. The terms we take for granted-cumulus, cirrus, stratus and so forth-were applied by the 30 year-old Howard for the first time. He drew upon his classical education to find suitable Latin names for what he termed "the modifications of clouds." He understood that clouds pass through stages and in his lecture he described the changes they underwent. His audience understood immediately the importance of his lecture and it was published soon afterwards to great acclaim.

Luke Howard became famous throughout the world. It is clear that he must have viewed this with mixed feelings. As a modest Quaker, he did not seek celebrity but as a scientist he was undoubtedly proud of his accomplishment. It is a beautiful achievement. By naming that which was ever-present but unnamed, Luke Howard helped forge the language of meteorology and provided some of the most important tools for weather observation and forecasting. His Latin names speak to the universality of climate and his detractors, who felt that the classifications should have been in English, were soon silenced. The book describes the reaction of artists as well. On the one hand, there were those who believed that clouds, as objects of great natural beauty and a symbol of freedom, would lose something by being systematically classified, as if they were species of beetles, but others, including the painter Constable, used the classification of the clouds as a basis for their art. The great genius of the period, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, completely enchanted by Luke Howard's work and personality, dedicated a series of marvellous poems to him, with each stanza based on one of the new cloud-forms.

But even having poetry dedicated to you by Goethe is not enough to claim enduring fame. Luke Howard seems to have lived a quiet existence, marked by some success in business and a happy family life. He died at the age of 91, remembered fondly by only his relatives. Richard Hamblyn, in writing this book, must have struggled to develop enough material as it appears that the lecture of 1802 was the high point of Luke Howard's scientific life and his attention was then taken up more by commerce and religious issues. Mr. Hamblyn gives us a history of the earlier attempts to define clouds, reaching back to Aristotle. He throws in the story of the Beaufort Wind Scale, which was inspired by but not as readily-accepted as Luke Howard's cloud system. He deals with the subsequent amendments to the cloud classifications and we learn of the International Meterological Conference and its winsomely-named Cloud Committee, which was to produce the International Cloud Atlas.

All very interesting, but it is in the sections about Luke Howard and his contemporaries, fascinated by the rapid progress in science at the end of the 18th Century, where the book is most alive. Richard Hamblyn ably paints a picture of London's crowded lecture halls where science was popular culture, of dangerous experiments and fantastic personalities. Men of brilliant and adventurous minds, often denied higher education due to their religion, could look into the future and stake a claim. The author, in sharing Luke Howard's triumph with us, has written an elegant work brimming with enthusiasm.

This oddly shaped (5.5 inches tall by 8 inches long) historical volume deftly captures the societal context and impact of pharmacist Luke Howard's classification of cloud types in the early 1800s. Hamblyn, a British historian of geophysical sciences, superbly limns the self-improving scientific ethos of Howard's Quaker working-class milieu. This portion of the book is excellent history, not just excellent history of science. However, the center of the book does not quite hold: Howard and the invention of his cloud scheme can be covered in far fewer than 403 pages. The last quarter of The Invention of Clouds strays farther and farther from the title, e.g., with a diverting chapter on the Beaufort wind scale. Hamblyn's failure to fully examine Howard's classification scheme in light of modern cloud observations will frustrate meteorologists. Even more frustrating for the general reader is the lack of any cloud photographs--despite the fact that the design of the book is perfect for landscape-oriented plates. Nevertheless, Hamblyn's prose brings Luke Howard, his time, and his clouds to life for the first time, a praiseworthy accomplishment. Suitable for most readers; the meteorology is explained at the introductory level.

Anyone who has lived and died by "Let's Go: Europe" will love this book! As much fun as Europe is, Chris Harris hits all its little idiosyncracies and nuances (including those of the Ugly American Tourist) right on the mark. You'll laugh hard and remember all the fun you had over there. IF you haven't gone to Europe, well, let's just say this book is full of location jokes. You have to be there to really appreciate it.

Don't go to Europe. Never go there, under any circumstances. To know why, read this book. It explains in graphic detail the horror of the Uglius Americanus' visits to that ghastly place, Europe. It is hilarious. More than Hilarious. And the best thing; it's true.

I have read this book over and over again, it's the most funny book that I have laid my eyes upon. Anyone from Europe should read this book because it'll make you laugh more than you ever have before. Anyone from the USA should read this book because it'll make you laugh more than you ever have before...

Yes, it's suitable for everyone! Even Canadians.

This is not your average history book in that the story of ancient Ireland flows off the pages to entertain and delight. It is a well written, lyrical and well researched history of ancient Ireland. The writers take us to the top of pagan ritual mounds and inside ancient caves, crawling through dark passageways. They visit monasteries where the residents have long since vanished but the ghosts of the past remain to haunt and remind us of an Ireland that once was noble and classical in its learning. When Europe entered its Dark Age, Ireland and the Irish were there to bring the light of scholarship back. I have read other books on this subject but there is so much that is new here. McCaffrey and Eaton consult with the best Irish archeologists, historians and anthropologists to tell their story of Ireland's ancient past with a clarity that is refreshing and enlightening.
I loved reading this book and felt as if I had gone back in time and that the past was alive again. An Irish past that I did not even realize existed! Different characters jumped off the pages - St. Patrick, Brian Boru, an interesting king/bishop called Feidlimid MacCrimthannn and even the Vikings all take on a real form. The research into the period is excellent, dispelling many myths and giving the correct sources. I loved reading the quotes from the ancient Irish annals and learning of the current archeological discoveries. This book is an excellent source book for everything you want to know about ancient Ireland. It made me proud of my Irish ancestry.

Collaboratively researched and written by Irish history expert Carmel McCaffrey and television writer, producer, and director Leo Eaton, In Search Of Ancient Ireland: The Origins Of The Irish From Neolithic Times To The Coming Of The English offers a truly fascinating and informative look at the origins of the Irish people and culture from the "New Stone Age" down of pre-history to the Norman invasion of 1167 AD, which brought the country under control of the English crown for the first time. Monasteries, ring forts, mountains, sacred caves, and as much as can be excavated or deduced of ancient history is superbly featured with a wealth of fine detail in this fascinating and highly readable resource. The companion book to a PBS television series of the same name, In Search Of Ancient Ireland is enthusiastically recommended for personal, academic, and community library Irish History Studies collections and reading lists.

This book offers great scholarship and is well researched on the issues surrounding the origins of the Irish race and culture. I was particularly interested to read about what Irish scholars have to say about the Celtic invasion. Just about every book I have read say that this occurred around 500 BC. Well, Irish scholars in Ireland are no longer saying this and in fact there is no archeological evidence for such an invasion. This was new information to me. But I appreciated also that the Celtic culture arrived and the writers give us a chapter on what this culture was about. I loved reading about the ancient Irish laws, the Brehon Laws. I also appreciated the chapter on St. Patrick and how he came to be the national saint of Ireland. It was as McCaffrey and Eaton point out 'clever politics and propaganda', which elevated him to this status. You get a great feel for the man in spite of his not being the only one to convert the Irish.
The chapter on the Irish monastery system is also full of interesting information. I almost felt like I was there reading about the families who owned the monasteries and what day to day life was like back then. The fact that women played an important role in early Irish Christianity to the point of having women bishops!
I really enjoyed learning about Irish families and seeing how great families like the O'Neills originated and the role they played in early Irish history. This is also the first time I have read about the details of the English invasion in such clear prose.
This book really is well researched on the most up to date scholarship on early Ireland. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the truth beyond much of the mythology and pseudo-history that so many books on this topic contain. Highest rating.