The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain, Julian Cope, Thorsons, 1998, ISBN 0 72253599 6, hardback, 438 pp., £29.99.

Cope’s book ‘aims to give something back to the culturally dispossessed of Britain, be they white, black or green; Welsh, English or in-between’, by encouraging the British and visitors to Britain to rediscover pre-Roman history (p ix). Attention is drawn to the past and present political significance of Stonehenge (p 5), and Cope includes discussion of ‘the Decline and Fall of the Great Goddess Culture’ (chap. 10). As a work aimed at the general public, this is a valuable addition to the literature, principally because it includes a gazetteer of around a hundred megalithic sites accompanied by descriptive text, colour photographs and antique illustrations and maps.