The Quest for Arthur's Britain

Rating:
Summary: Slightly obsolete, but still a classic.
Review: If I were reviewing this book when it was brand new at the end of the sixties, I would have had to give it five stars. The only reason that I am demoting it by a star is that it is slightly out of date. New archaeological data and new historical insights call for an updated edition of this great book. I wrote the chief author and editor of this book, Geoffrey Ashe, to congratulate and praise him for all his wonderful work on this subject. I especially praised his _The Discovery of King Arthur_ which was released in 1985 (I gave that one a five star review). I told him that since he had completely revolutionized the subject with that one, even great books like _Quest for Arthur's Britain_ and _Arthur's Britain_ by Leslie Alcock (I gave that one a four star review), who wrote some of the chapters of _Quest for Arthur's Britain_, now need to be updated a bit. I was extremely fortunate to get a reply from Mr. Ashe, who acknowledged that while these books were state-of-the-art when they first came out, they are now out of date in some ways. For example, some of the chronological data could stand to be updated; more and more data continues to come to light shifting certain events and figures back a bit; Arthur for example is now believed to have flourished about a generation earlier than was once thought. This beautifully illustrated book serves several functions: it gives an overview of the evolution of the Arthurian legend; there's a chapter on the end of Roman Britain; there are several chapters by great archaeologists (Phil Rhatz, C. A. Raleigh Radford, and Leslie Alcock) whose ground-breaking (excuse the pun) discoveries have greatly illuminated our understanding of the Arthurian age (5th and 6th centuries); and there is a good chapter on everyday life in the Arthurian age (food, fashion, etc.).

Rating:
Summary: Slightly obsolete, but still a classic.
Review: If I were reviewing this book when it was brand new at the end of the sixties, I would have had to give it five stars. The only reason that I am demoting it by a star is that it is slightly out of date. New archaeological data and new historical insights call for an updated edition of this great book. I wrote the chief author and editor of this book, Geoffrey Ashe, to congratulate and praise him for all his wonderful work on this subject. I especially praised his _The Discovery of King Arthur_ which was released in 1985 (I gave that one a five star review). I told him that since he had completely revolutionized the subject with that one, even great books like _Quest for Arthur's Britain_ and _Arthur's Britain_ by Leslie Alcock (I gave that one a four star review), who wrote some of the chapters of _Quest for Arthur's Britain_, now need to be updated a bit. I was extremely fortunate to get a reply from Mr. Ashe, who acknowledged that while these books were state-of-the-art when they first came out, they are now out of date in some ways. For example, some of the chronological data could stand to be updated; more and more data continues to come to light shifting certain events and figures back a bit; Arthur for example is now believed to have flourished about a generation earlier than was once thought. This beautifully illustrated book serves several functions: it gives an overview of the evolution of the Arthurian legend; there's a chapter on the end of Roman Britain; there are several chapters by great archaeologists (Phil Rhatz, C. A. Raleigh Radford, and Leslie Alcock) whose ground-breaking (excuse the pun) discoveries have greatly illuminated our understanding of the Arthurian age (5th and 6th centuries); and there is a good chapter on everyday life in the Arthurian age (food, fashion, etc.).