'This is a splendid book. If only more historians wrote as vigorously, vividly and imaginatively as Ronald Hutton, specialised history might recover some of its appeal to a wider public. Hutton's skilful use of well-selected illustrative detail shows a complete mastery of the sources...He is disarmingly unengaged in current academic-ideological squabbles. His conclusions are tentative, undogmatic, open-minded, but clearly stated. A special virtue is the attention which his book pays to Scotland and Ireland...Dr Hutton finds new angles, neglected pieces of evidence...It is nice to think that so enjoyable a book will become the standard authority on its subject.' Christopher Hill, Guardian