The appearance of Macbeth in the title of this little book (part of a well‐established series) must be designed to catch the attention of the casual reader, for it actually has the ambitious aim of describing in less than 100 pages the whole history of Scotland from Roman times to ad 1100. The author is well aware that the number of indisputable facts during this period is disappointingly small, and that most of them merely enumerate battles or the deaths of kings. So he has tried to enliven what would otherwise be a dry text by including some of the more interesting legendary material, while pointing out that it is indeed legendary rather than factual. Even so, phrases like “It is said” occur with remarkable frequency. The history described appears on the whole to be as reliable as could be expected in such a nebulous era, though some passages have to be questioned: for instance, whatever language the Picts spoke, it could not have been “Brythonic Gaelic” since Gaelic is by definition not Brythonic.
Following the narrative, the second part of the book is devoted to a list of about 90 historical sites associated with the period, and including their locations, opening hours, relevant telephone numbers and the reasons for their significance. However, fully a quarter of them are no more than buildings erected in later periods on sites believed to have been occupied earlier. As ever, one might dispute a few of them: the author seems to have missed the fact that the prehistoric tomb of Maes Howe in Orkney was embellished with the largest collection of Runic Viking inscriptions in the UK, and he could have made room for it by leaving out Cupar Castle, of which not a trace remains. Inevitably, many of the illustrations are concoctions by historical painters, and it is a mystery why some of them appear twice, while one of the maps appears three times! By avoiding such repetition, space could easily have been found for a bibliography, which is surely needed: conversely, it is commendable to find an index in so small a book. This popularly priced volume will be useful to readers who wish to inform themselves about early Scottish history, but a little more thought would have made it better.
