Mysterious Britain

by Homer W. Sykes

Throughout Britain's length and breadth, ancient tribes, druids, Celtic saints, medieval knights, and 18th-century landowners have bestowed upon future generations a wealth of astonishing sights, structures, and landmarks. These awesome sights appear in evocative color photographs, richly enhanced with the history, legends, and folktales that surround them. Imagine dancing maidens and unfortunate princes turned to stone in Devon and Cornwall; water made holy in Wales; and the witch who milked the giant cow in Shropshire. These are treasures worth cherishing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Mythology, History, British Literature

160 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 1993

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have long had a fascination with some of the most ancient elements of our landscapes. Why people chose to move huge stones from one place to another that had special significance and raise them up in a particular way is something that we may never be able to answer.

We supposedly have more prehistoric monuments than any other country in Europe, the most famous is of course, Stonehenge, but how many know of the others around the country. In Mysterious Britain, Homer Sykes has travelled all over the UK from the far north in Orkney to the very southern point of Cornwall to record images of 110 of these places.

It is not a bad book overall and is a good companion volume to another book I have called, The Modern Antiquarian by Julian Cope. Some of the pictures in here are pretty good, but others I think were taken when the light wasn’t quite right and are a bit flat. It does have a great bibliography too.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange mix of subjects.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nicely illustrated coffee table travel book about Britain which emphasizes mysterious antiquities like the stone circles. The author also appears as the photographer in books written by others and seems to be quite taken by the charm and history of his country.

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The text isn't much cop but some very nice photographs of about 100 or so sites across Britain: sacred wells, stone circles, hill figures and some modern follies, plenty others too.