The Britannias An Archipelago S Tale

A revelatory portrait of Britain through its islands, The Britannias weaves history, myth, and travelogue to rewrite the story of this “island nation.” From Neolithic Orkney, Viking Shetland, and Druidical Anglesey to the joys and strangeness of modern Thanet, The Britannias explores the farthest reaches of Britain’s island topography, once known by the collective term “Britanniae” (the Britains). This expansive journey demonstrates how the smaller islands have wielded disproportionate influence on the mainland, becoming the fertile ground of political, cultural, and technological innovations that shaped history throughout the archipelago. In an act of feminist inquiry, personal adventure, and literary quest, Alice Albinia embarks on a series of journeys that traverse Britain and reach beyond its contemporary borders—from Europe to the Caribbean, Ireland to Scandinavia. She walks the coastlines of Lindisfarne, sails through the Hebrides archipelago, and bikes into Westminster at dawn. As she takes us across extravagantly varied island topographies and surveys centuries of history, Albinia ranges between languages and genres, and through disparate island cultures. She talks to stubbornly independent islanders and searches for archaeological and linguistic traces of island identities, discovering distinct traditions and resistance to mainland control. Trespassing into the past to understand the present, The Britannias uncovers an enduring and subversive mythology of islands ruled by women. Albinia finds female independence woven through Roman colonial reports and Welsh medieval poetry, Restoration utopias and island folk songs. These neglected epics offer fierce feminist countercurrents to mainstream narratives of British identity and shed new light on women’s status in the body politic today. Vivid, perceptive, and disruptive, The Britannias boldly upturns established truths about Britain while revealing its suppressed and forgotten beauty.

Along our shores, towering cliffs from the age of the dinosaurs rise beside wide estuaries teeming with wildlife, while Victorian ports share waterfronts with imposing fortifications. And the people who have lived, worked and played on this spectacular coast - from Stone Age fishermen to seafarers, chart-makers and surfers - have an incredible tale to tell. Coast: Our Island Story is an enthralling account, sparkling with geography, history, adventure and eccentric characters, told with Nick Crane's trademark charisma and wit.

Island Stories looks at the multiplicity of myths that issue from the 4 nations that make up Great Britain. His perspective brings new meaning to the idea of history revealing how nations use their past to give meaning to their present and future.

From its misty beginnings as part of the mainland in the Stone Age, this history covers Lindisfarne's formation as an island, the Roman and Anglo-Saxon eras, the influence of Columba and Iona, Lindisfarne's own apostle, Bede and the monastic tradition, the coming of the Vikings, the Benedictine years and the dissolution of the monasteries.

Just over a century ago, Our Island Story entranced a nation's children by telling their history in stories. Short, simply written chapters, packed with living characters and thrilling action - and illustrated with vivid colour pictures - illuminate all the main events from Britain's earliest days to the end of Victoria's reign. And its glorious fusion of myth and legend with sober fact - Canute and King Arthur with Cromwell and the Indian Mutiny - is as seductive now as it ever was. 'I was given H.E. Marshall's Our Island Story at Christmas 1936 and I've still got that copy. It was a direct inspiration for me in my career as a historian' Antonia Fraser 'It is written in a way that really captured my imagination and which nurtured my interest in the history of our great nation' David Cameron 'One of the most influential works of history of the 20th century' Times Educational Supplement

This eBook edition has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Content: Randall Parrish: Wolves of the Sea Charles Boardman Hawes: The Dark Frigate The Mutineers Rafael Sabatini: Captain Blood The Sea-Hawk Captain Charles Johnson: The History of Pirates R. L. Stevenson: Treasure Island Jack London: The Sea Wolf The Mutiny of the Elsinore A Son of the Sun Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe Captain Singleton Tobias Smollett: The Adventures of Roderick Random Walter Scott: The Pirate Frederick Marryat: Mr. Midshipman Easy Masterman Ready; Or, The Wreck of the "Pacific" Edgar Allan Poe: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket James Fenimore Cooper: The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea The Red Rover Afloat and Ashore: A Sea Tale Miles Wallingford Homeward Bound; Or, The Chase: A Tale of the Sea Thomas Mayne Reid: The Ocean Waifs: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea Victor Hugo: Toilers of the Sea Herman Melville: Redburn White-Jacket Moby Dick Benito Cereno R. M. Ballantyne: The Coral Island: A Tale of the Pacific Ocean Fighting the Whales Jules Verne: The Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras In Search of the Castaways; Or, The Children of Captain Grant 20 000 Leagues under the Sea Dick Sand: A Captain at Fifteen An Antarctic Mystery L. Frank Baum: Sam Steele's Adventures on Land and Sea Joseph Conrad: The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' Lord Jim Typhoon The Shadow Line The Arrow of Gold Rudyard Kipling: Captains Courageous Ralph Henry Barbour: The Adventure Club Afloat Jeffery Farnol: Black Bartlemy's Treasure Martin Conisby's Vengeance Henry De Vere Stacpoole The Blue Lagoon The Garden of God