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Francis Pryor
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The Making of the British Landscape: How We Have Transformed the Land, from Prehistory to Today Kindle Edition

by Francis Pryor (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 142 ratings
This is the changing story of Britain as it has been preserved in our fields, roads, buildings, towns and villages, mountains, forests and islands. From our suburban streets that still trace out the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded, from the ceremonial landscapes of Stonehenge to the spread of the railways - evidence of how man's effect on Britain is everywhere. In The Making of the British Landscape, eminent historian, archaeologist and farmer, Francis Pryor explains how to read these clues to understand the fascinating history of our land and of how people have lived on it throughout time. Covering both the urban and rural and packed with pictures, maps and drawings showing everything from how we can still pick out Bronze Age fields on Bodmin Moor to how the Industrial Revolution really changed our landscape, this book makes us look afresh at our surroundings and really see them for the first time.
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  1. Print length
    852 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin
  4. Publication date
    3 Jun. 2010
  5. File size
    73.5 MB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
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  8. Enhanced typesetting
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Product description

Review

Pryor is that rare combination of a first-rate working archaeologist and a good writer, with the priceless ability of being able to explain complex ideas clearly. This is popular archaeology at its best. ― Times Higher Educational Supplement

Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today... Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it -- Kathryn Hughes ― Guardian

A rollercoaster across a hundred centuries ... Pryor clearly loves this country in the marrow of his bones -- Adam Nicholson ― Scotsman

Compelling, deeply rewarding and hugely impressive ... pull on your boots and coat, go out into the open -- Philip Marsden ― Sunday Times

I guarantee you'll enjoy it

― British Archaeology

About the Author

Former president of the Council for British Archaeology, Dr Francis Pryor has spent thirty years studying the prehistory of the Fens. He has excavated sites as diverse as Bronze Age farms, field systems and entire Iron Age villages. He appears frequently on TV's Time Team and is the author of Seahenge, as well as Britain BC and Britain AD, both of which he adapted and presented as Channel 4 series.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003TSE8H6
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; UK ed. edition (3 Jun. 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 73.5 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 852 pages
  • Customer reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 142 ratings

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Francis Pryor

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
142 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers appreciate the book's informative and well-researched content on British landscape and history. They find it a useful complement to earlier studies by W. H. Hoskins. The author's knowledge of British history and institutions is evident, making the book an excellent textbook on how history is developing. Readers describe the narrative style as easy to understand, with an engaging narrative that makes them share the author's enthusiasm. Overall, they describe the book as a good, enjoyable read.

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22 customers mention ‘Information quality’22 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative and well-researched. They find it helpful, thought-provoking, and practical about landscapes and history. The book complements earlier studies by W. H. Hoskins and takes a more modern approach. Readers mention it's easy to read and thought-provoking, finding significant merit in unexpected places like suburbs. Overall, they describe it as illuminating and practical.

"...very easy to digest style that makes the book not only factual but fascinating, The person who received it is thrilled...." Read more

"As a local historian the book was very up to date and informative...." Read more

"...places, Dr Pryor has done a great job, even finding significant merit in quite unexpected places such as the suburbs...." Read more

"...It could be better organized, there is a wealth of excellent material covered, but some of the context shifts are quite annoying...." Read more

19 customers mention ‘British history’19 positive0 negative

Customers find the book comprehensive and easy to read. It provides a modern and developed view of landscape and history as practical and everyday. Readers appreciate the author's intricate knowledge of British history and institutions. They consider it a textbook of how history is developing and useful for those studying Geography, Archaeology, and History.

"...Pryor is particularly good on the prehistoric period...." Read more

"That Francis Pryor cares deeply about the British Landscape and its History isn't the question, but that this book could have been edited to a..." Read more

"...In addition to an intricate knowledge of British history and institutions, I detect that he has a feel for what could be termed the British..." Read more

"...The coverage of pre-history is highly detailed and shows real insight, but this gets progressively thinner as we approach more modern times...." Read more

19 customers mention ‘Readable’14 positive5 negative

Customers find the book readable and well-written. They appreciate the author's clear writing style and enthusiasm. The book is thorough and detailed, with an empathic approach to the human condition.

"...The very well-renowned author/lecturer writes in a very easy to digest style that makes the book not only factual but fascinating, The person who..." Read more

"This is a brilliant and relatively rapid overview of current thinking on how early human societies functioned in relation to the landscape...." Read more

"...The writer knew his subject well but there was not enough content for my home area of what is now South Yorkshire." Read more

"...It could be better organized, there is a wealth of excellent material covered, but some of the context shifts are quite annoying...." Read more

12 customers mention ‘Readability’12 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and enjoyable. They describe it as a brilliant and relatively rapid overview of current British landscapes. While some readers dislike the author's dissing of the West Country, overall they consider it an interesting read with a monumental achievement.

"This is a brilliant and relatively rapid overview of current thinking on how early human societies functioned in relation to the landscape...." Read more

"...Although highly personal in places, Dr Pryor has done a great job, even finding significant merit in quite unexpected places such as the suburbs...." Read more

"...' to you, he treats the reader as an equal and as such the book is pleasure to read." Read more

"...Either way, this book is a monumental achievement with near 800 pages of text covered...." Read more

Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Geoff C
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great work of historical fact in a very easy-to-read style.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2021
    Verified Purchase
    This was a gift for someone who is studying early English history and, after much searching, this book out clearly. The very well-renowned author/lecturer writes in a very easy to digest style that makes the book not only factual but fascinating, The person who received it is thrilled. Highly recommended and we will buy more of popular books.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Vigilantius
    4.0 out of 5 stars readable and highly informative with excellent illustrations
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2019
    Verified Purchase
    This is a brilliant and relatively rapid overview of current thinking on how early human societies functioned in relation to the landscape. Pryor is particularly good on the prehistoric period.

    Pryor engages in many polemical battle-grounds in a generally authoritative fashion , very much drawing on archaeology and science. For example:

    - how and when did farming come to Britain?
    - why did big henges and burial mounds cease to be built after about 1500 BC?
    - why were hillforts built? and why so many (c3,500)?
    - how extensive was Iron age farming and field systems?
    - how did the natives view the coming of the Romans?
    - what was the impact of the Romans on the landscape?
    - how did Saxon land use differ from that of the Romans?
    - how major was the impact of sheep farming ... and the Black Death?

    At 695 dense pages, this is not a light read, but it is nevertheless a delight to find education so entertaining. One caveat is that this work is not really about the 'making of the British landscape' (as per the title) but it is about how human societies lived and worked in the landscape. However, this doesn't matter much.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • Richard
    5.0 out of 5 stars A very good book on English landscape history
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 January 2022
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    As a local historian the book was very up to date and informative. The writer knew his subject well but there was not enough content for my home area of what is now South Yorkshire.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Oolith
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 August 2013
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    I have just finished reading The Making of the British Landscape and thoroughly enjoyed it. It took me a few weeks to complete as it is a long book (covering a very broad range of landscape related subject areas) but I found it easy to read and very thought provoking. Although highly personal in places, Dr Pryor has done a great job, even finding significant merit in quite unexpected places such as the suburbs. Some books I read and then forget, others never leave me and this is definitely one of those. I will certainly re-read this book. Highly recommended.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Richard H
    4.0 out of 5 stars Pryor rambles over the landscape
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 December 2010
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    That Francis Pryor cares deeply about the British Landscape and its History isn't the question, but that this book could have been edited to a tighter, more interesting narrative is. The text is often repetitive, covering the same point twice in as many pages, or splitting it between two separate sections (Leisure by rail and by road). It could be better organized, there is a wealth of excellent material covered, but some of the context shifts are quite annoying. At the end of the day though, Mr Pryor is extremely good when he is on song, whether about matters about which he is a world-renowned expert (Prehistory, or East Anglia), or on other that he clearly has at his heart (the environment). There his inclination to ramble is a pleasure, but in areas where his involvement is less intimate, he seems to be waffling at times and to have skimped on the full story at others. I'd have been happier for a book two thirds the length, covering a lesser span and with perhaps a bit less of the polemic. I agree with his view of the need to care for the landscape, both practically and emotionally, but having it drilled into my skull by a 850 page tome gets a little old after a while. A second edition of Britain BC please Mr Pryor!
    25 people found this helpful
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  • R. Fowkes
    5.0 out of 5 stars Compassionate understanding
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2012
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    Having been thinking for some years of re-reading Hoskins Making of the English Landscape, along comes Pryors book to bring the subject bang up to date. I find him a writer tremendously empathic to the human condition. He deploys an almost compassionate understanding of the uses made of landscape to fulfil human need. "The archaeology and history of landscape is the story of day-to-day decisions made by ordinary people" (p675). This approach lends an optimism to the whole work; surely, the ingenuity evident in our forebears use of landscape is an ongoing variable? Thus, Pryor is even-handed about, for example, the benefits of 18th/19th Century industrialisation, or more modern developments such as wind farms. In addition to an intricate knowledge of British history and institutions, I detect that he has a feel for what could be termed the British Character, its traditions and democratic freedoms, and how these have influenced landscape. Hence the examination of landscapes of leisure and pleasure - golf courses, spas, resorts, gardens - surely not as evident in countries with a more centralised and totalitarian tradition. The final chapter is almost a philosophy of landscape, how "... the landscapes we define, discuss and inhabit exist within our minds and imaginations" (p656), and how landscape has become for us, individually and collectively, a symbol of our identity. The phrase that for me sums up the purpose of this book is that, by studying landscape "... we can learn about ourselves, through the activities of earlier generations, and we shall discover they were remarkably like us" (p 694).
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Kindle Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars As per usual a highly illuminating book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2020
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    Francis Pryor seems to be able to write books that deliver the goods in a very easy to read manner without dumbing down the subject. He takes you through the evolution of the English Landscape through the ages without 'talking down' to you, he treats the reader as an equal and as such the book is pleasure to read.
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  • Pete Lanc
    3.0 out of 5 stars This could have been so much more.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2014
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    The author has taken on a mammoth task and not quite managed to deliver. Some hard editorial input during the writing process could have trimmed away a lot of repetitive detail and made room for elaboration in other areas. The coverage of pre-history is highly detailed and shows real insight, but this gets progressively thinner as we approach more modern times. The treatment of more recent times is selective and opinionated, and rather lets the author down.
    The diagrams and photos are too small on the Kindle to be of help in illustrating any points, I suspect that they only work in a large format publication.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Patricia Gibson, Ed.D.
    5.0 out of 5 stars for archeology fans
    Reviewed in the United States on 22 September 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Francis Pryor has written a series of excellent books about prehistory of Britain. They are easy to read and very informative. However, if you are not an archeology fan like I am, you will not like them. If you find Stonehenge and its like genuinely fascinating, don't miss these books. PKG
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  • Laura Williams
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good for history lovers
    Reviewed in Canada on 21 January 2024
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    Required reading for my British history course. It’s a lovely in-depth read that any history lover would enjoy.
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  • Debra Morse
    5.0 out of 5 stars Pryor is a good writer.
    Reviewed in the United States on 18 March 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Kindle book and it was good.
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  • feyfaye
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on 11 March 2015
    Verified Purchase
    Love any of Francis's books, so easy to read
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  • Atheen
    3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on 10 January 2017
    Verified Purchase
    Good overview of how things changed, when and why.
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