In Search of the Battlefields of Britain

In Search of the Battlefields of Britain 

Alexander, M., P. Abrahams 

Paperback. 192p b/w illus col pls (The History Press 2009).

The latest in a long line of guide books to the battlefields of Britain covers the main engagements chronologically with thumbnail descriptions of the action accompanying maps, grid-references and plans of troop depositions. Good as it looks though, this is not really a book that can be recommended, mainly because the entries are entirely uncritical - there is no room for any doubt as to where battlefields were or how the events progressed, and there are no footnotes or bibliography.

The worst example of this slapdash approach is also the first in the book. Mons Badonicus, where Arthur supposedly defeated the Saxons is included without any indication that it might be controversial, with Geoffrey of Monmouth taken as a reliable source, and even embellished, and a notoriously problematic battle even staggeringly given a grid-reference and troop formations.