Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms

If I was born and lived in Scotland, this is the book I would have written. Brings together a lot of hard-to-conjure history, especially about 400-600 A.D. Anyone who has tried to read about the ancient kingdom of Strathclyde will find most of what he has searched for and gleaned from various sources, placed neatly into the context of Moffat's "Arthur". Local traditions and place-names are used as much for his sources as the archealogical and historic records, which are scant for this period; so, Arthur is revealed to the reader not all at once, but in morsels. Moffat allows us to experience the tickle of anticipation, as we are enthralled by the story of the Britons.

"Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms" is an interesting work, going into the history of the north of Britain in the Iron Age, Roman period, and post-Roman centuries. Moffat makes a good case for a historical Arthur, who was based out of the ancient Welsh-speaking north, which is now the Scottish borderlands. It's good to get to know something about this Arthur, or at least the times in which the historical war-leader Arthur would have lived, in a genuine historical context, rather than a mythological or semi-legendary context only. For anyone who's a fan of the stories of Arthur, or fascinated by the history of the so-called "Dark Ages" in Britain, this will be an informative book. Be prepared for a lot of references to the P-Celtic and Q-Celtic language subgroups, British tribal names, and some other references which might be obscure to the novice. Some of Moffat's evidence is largely supposition, but he really does dig up some nice history, and he's not overbearing. It's worth reading.