Customer Reviews

The Other British Isles: A History Of Shetland, Orkney, The Hebrides, Isle Of Man, Angelsey, Scilly, Isle Of Wight And The Channel Islands

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Excellent summary of the overlooked history of the main off-shore islands. Fascinating details of an almost parallel universe to the mainland. Their geography often placed them in the way of power struggles taking place beyond their shores. Each island has its own peculiarities with shifting economies based on far-flung trading partners and changing demands. The book zips along, covering a lot of ground but has a terrific index for cross referencing place names and keeping track of the colorful characters that peopled the isles up to and including recent times.

This was one of the few books I could find on the Orkneys, and it has been very informative and interesting so far. Highly recommended for anyone interested in another facet of British culture.

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Being of Celtic stock and from one of the 6,289 offshore `islands of the archipelagos', but not from one visited or even indexed by David Moore, I could readily accept his statements on the differences of attitude if not cultures of `islanders' to those peoples on the mainland of Great Britain, but I argue with his claim that history readers might be forgiven for forgetting these islands form part of the nation - it is called the British Isles after all!
Firstly, the physical book itself, handsomely published by the appropriately named McFarland, a large yet handy volume, regretfully containing in this version just a handful of sketched maps. As I enjoyed the book I longed for photographs, even at one stage - the descriptions of Skara Brae - resorting to Google, so as to actually "see" what I had learned by my reading. I was able to rely on personal memories for several of the islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Orkney, Wright and Mann) in support of the mind-pictures of the prose, but would have liked some pictures, or indeed, more descriptions of these beautiful isles from Professor Moore.
Of Skara Brae itself the author firmly establishes its antiquity by creating a mind-picture of a path descending to the foundations past a series of `signposts' recording such historical events as the moon landing, various inventions, the crusades, the Roman Empire, the building of the pyramids until - oldest of all - the founding of Skara Brae itself. Dated to 3100 BCE this `village' had built in closet organizers, sleeping couches and even rudimentary plumbing and drainage - long before the Romans settled. An island occupation from over 5000 years ago that astounds us still.

This is a book for history buffs, written by a history professor, so is not for casual skimming, and it requires concentration - almost studying - but the rewards justify one's attention. The work is a deep historical research leading to thrilling and revealing accounts. Despite my visiting many times and often reading about the Channel Isles - those geographical, incongruous anomalies near Brittany - I had little idea of the waves of anthropological storms that had washed around them. Anglesey - again oft visited and, I thought before reading this work, well know - proved to have exciting stories of Roman occupation, Vikings, Druids and Welsh Kings, It was, Moore reveals, called M'n mam Cymru, the Mother of Wales as long ago as the time of Gruffydd in 1081.

This is a book that can be strongly recommended to any `history-buff' or even more serious studiers of the history of the British Isles, or of man and Western civilization.

Moore has written a definitive history of the smaller islands around what we normally think of when we hear "British Isles". I knew of some of these islands, but not all of them, and I knew almost nothing about their histories. Each set of islands has a unique history, character, and feel, and this book does an excellent job of conveying this to the reader. I did get a bit lost at times since I am not a student of British history, but that is my fault as an American and not a fault with the book! I learned so much by reading this book and found new places that I hope to visit one day. If there is any complaint at all, it is that I missed having photographs. A few would have been helpful and would have kept me from running to the computer to see what something looks like, particularly historic places. The information is certainly packed into these pages! I recommend this to anyone who wants to increase their knowledge of the history of all the British Isles.

I ordered this book for a class I'm taking because the college book store was out of used books. This book was actually in much better condition than I thought it would be and it arrived much sooner than expected.