Yet another book on Britain's prehistoric monuments should have something special to recommend it, and this one does: Sykes' sumptuous, magnificently composed portraits of Long Meg, the Cerne Abbas Giant, the White Horse at Uffington, and other British antiquities. The clear, well-researched prose is good enough, but the photographs are simply brilliant. Scotland's vast Ring of Brodgar, for instance--a famous stone circle set on a pancake-flat isthmus--is a difficult subject, and most attempts fail to capture its magnetic mystery; Sykes' portrait of it is mostly looming sky, broken at the horizon by a lemon sunset before which 20 stones stand like black-clad mourners. Sykes is to megalith as Avedon is to celebrity. Each photo here is a treasure. Pat Monaghan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Throughout the length and breadth of Britain, ancient tribes, druids, Celtic Saints, Medieval Knights and 18th century landowners have left future generations a wealth of extroadinary sights, scapes and structures. Homer Syke's superb and evocative photographs record these marvels in full colour while his informative text relates their history, and the legends and folktales that surround them - dancing maidens and unfortunate princes turned to stone in Devon and Cornwall, water made holy by the Gilded skull of Saint Teilo in Wales, and the witch who milked the Giant cow in Mitchells fold, Shropshire.
See all Editorial Reviews
