Tom Fort

A Prehistoric Lourdes?

Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery

By

Simon & Schuster 406pp £25 order from our bookshop

The 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth attributed the building of Stonehenge to Merlin the magician. According to his History of the Kings of Britain, Merlin located the stones on a mountain in Ireland and exercised his special powers to spirit them over to Salisbury Plain. My, how we chortle at the credulity of those nincompoops of long ago!

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • Why did the 'bold and determined' Empress Matilda never manage to become Queen regnant? Peter Marshall reviews a n… ,
    • From the Archive: Martyn Bedford on Ian McEwan's 'Atonement' ,
    • In 'Silenced Voices' reports the ongoing story of the human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has been… ,
    • The mystery of Jack the Ripper's identity has long been agonised over. But what do we know about his victims?… ,
    • A piece of Literary Review history from way back in 1983: John Haffenden talks to the great Iris Murdoch. ,
    • Britain’s only travelling lit fest, the Garden Museum Literary Festival is heading to Houghton Hall, Norfolk, for a… ,
    • 'The 19th-century German sage is not my idea of a pleasant travel companion' goes hiking with Friedr… ,
    Follow Us