Blood and Mistletoe

This is an ably researched and well-written book. . . . Blood and Mistletoe is the saga of a miraculous transformation. --Peter Ackroyd, The Times All the difficult and contentious answers are now assembled in Ronald Hutton's erudite, humane and compelling study. . . . --Rosemary Hill, The Sunday Times . . . engaging, learned, evenhanded, and abundantly rewarding book. . . . This is a substantial piece of work. --John Carey, Europe: Early Modern and Modern Shortlisted for the 2009 Katherine Briggs Folklore Award A magisterial and eminently readable account of the druids and how they have been continually reinvented over the last three hundred years by visionaries, political radicals, angry academics and downright fraudsters. Recommended reading for anyone who has driven down the A303 late at night, slowed down as they approached Stonehenge and wondered for a moment if the original druids really did process round those gigantic stones wreathed in mistletoe and clutching blood-stained knives! --Tony Robinson Lucid, open-minded, encyclopaedic and yet still fascinating -- almost perfect history if such a thing were possible. --Terry Jones Everything that is known about the druids plus everything that is known about knowing about them! Ronald Hutton uses the quest for the druids as a mirror of how Europeans have seen themselves through the last thousand years. It's an enormous undertaking performed with even-handedness and a sense of joy in history. --Terry Jones