The Celts: A Sceptical History
By Simon Jenkins
Profile Books £16.99
I’ve never much gone for Celtic mythology – mists, caverns, waterfalls, elf maidens and hairy warriors and what Simon Jenkins calls ‘dimwits clad in druidical garb’, sporting ornate buckles and brooches.
It is an over-romanticised vision or version of our pre-history, ‘a magic bag into which anything can be tossed’, in the words of Tolkien.
As Jenkins shows, when the concept of a Celtic society is investigated, it turns out nothing actually existed, in any place. ‘There has never been found a distinct people, race