The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel Available to Purchase

“It's a bountiful country, flowing with milk and honey” said Uncle Ian. “But there's something in the air that makes primates as cantankerous as gorillas that have eaten sour apples. So, fighting they were, but mating too.”

“It's much the same thing” said Father. “H'm, I wonder what will become of it. Hairy apes and hairless apes miscegenating in Palestine in the Pleistocene?”

“Bearded prophets living on locusts and honey in the Holocene” I suggested.

“Don't try to be smart, Ernest” growled Father, “You're not cut out for it”.

I first read that extract from Roy Lewis' delightful What We...