Megalithic European: The 21st Century Traveller in Prehistoric Europe by Julian Cope  (5)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Julian Cope has come a long way since the Teardrop Explodes. For eight years he has researched Britain's megalithic heritage in order to write about its inspirational and mythic importance.The Modern Antiquarian is quite an achievement, in which the singing space cadet once more reconciles himself to Earth. Book One is a series of ten essays reconstructing British paganism prior to the muscular intervention of Christianity. Seriously subjective, frequently wayward, they collectively seek to recover the Great Goddess, and restore a sense of femininity and spirituality to our landscape, dotted with its long barrows and standing stones. In the process, Cope introduces imaginative etymosophies [sic] and some wonderful chapter headings, such as "Why the Romans were so Heavy", and "Ur Indoors", while indulging his distaste for cities and his love of Roman-bashing, for their corruption of collective folk memory, and the straightness of their roads. Cope's own infectious vision is, understandably, more circular, if not exactly rounded. It would be easy to mock, with its amateur snaps (sometimes including a variously coiffed Cope or family, for scale, one presumes), and homespun New Age philosophy. However, Book Two, a rainbow-indexed gazetteer to over 300 prehistoric sites in Britain, is tremendous. Each entry combines a photograph, Ordnance Survey directions, a paragraph of geo-historical significance, and a personal observational note of Cope's. Occasional poetry surfaces--"Atop Knap Hill I eat my snot/For 'tis the only food I got"--but generally the absurdities are kept at bay, as St Julian leads us on a pilgrimage. There are even charming guidelines for those who use the gazetteer properly, including the invaluable tip to keep a plastic bag down your sock to collect rubbish in (Julian does). Splendidly eccentric, impossible not to enjoy, and as much a map of the errant genius of Cope as the land with which he so passionately communes. --David Vincent
Review
'Erudite (his references range from Pope and Blake to D. H. Lawrence and T. S. Eliot), articulate and lucid, he possesses an admirable degree of self-awareness.' - The Telegraph, September 1995
This is an unusual book. Beneath the gaudy exterior and lurid layouts of the second half lurks a feast of information about megalithic Britain, accessibly delivered although poorly presented. This book took Cope eight years to research and complete - and it shows. His scope is vast and magical, and in the first half, the essays section, he presents an absorbing overview of a much bigger picture. There are whole chapters devoted to temples, standing stones, goddess worship and even the coming of Christianity. I the gazzetteer, he draws together the elements of pictures, maps and illustrations and makes them come alive, even going so far as to give readers tips about how best to get to sites via public transport and suchlike. One cannot he
Julian Cope has come a long way since the Teardrop Explodes. For eight years he has researched Britain's megalithic heritage in order to write about its inspirational and mythic importance.The Modern Antiquarian is quite an achievement, in which the singing space cadet once more reconciles himself to Earth. Book One is a series of ten essays reconstructing British paganism prior to the muscular intervention of Christianity. Seriously subjective, frequently wayward, they collectively seek to recover the Great Goddess, and restore a sense of femininity and spirituality to our landscape, dotted with its long barrows and standing stones. In the process, Cope introduces imaginative etymosophies [sic] and some wonderful chapter headings, such as "Why the Romans were so Heavy", and "Ur Indoors", while indulging his distaste for cities and his love of Roman-bashing, for their corruption of collective folk memory, and the straightness of their roads. Cope's own infectious vision is, understandably, more circular, if not exactly rounded. It would be easy to mock, with its amateur snaps (sometimes including a variously coiffed Cope or family, for scale, one presumes), and homespun New Age philosophy. However, Book Two, a rainbow-indexed gazetteer to over 300 prehistoric sites in Britain, is tremendous. Each entry combines a photograph, Ordnance Survey directions, a paragraph of geo-historical significance, and a personal observational note of Cope's. Occasional poetry surfaces--"Atop Knap Hill I eat my snot/For 'tis the only food I got"--but generally the absurdities are kept at bay, as St Julian leads us on a pilgrimage. There are even charming guidelines for those who use the gazetteer properly, including the invaluable tip to keep a plastic bag down your sock to collect rubbish in (Julian does). Splendidly eccentric, impossible not to enjoy, and as much a map of the errant genius of Cope as the land with which he so passionately communes. --David Vincent
Review
'Erudite (his references range from Pope and Blake to D. H. Lawrence and T. S. Eliot), articulate and lucid, he possesses an admirable degree of self-awareness.' - The Telegraph, September 1995
This is an unusual book. Beneath the gaudy exterior and lurid layouts of the second half lurks a feast of information about megalithic Britain, accessibly delivered although poorly presented. This book took Cope eight years to research and complete - and it shows. His scope is vast and magical, and in the first half, the essays section, he presents an absorbing overview of a much bigger picture. There are whole chapters devoted to temples, standing stones, goddess worship and even the coming of Christianity. I the gazzetteer, he draws together the elements of pictures, maps and illustrations and makes them come alive, even going so far as to give readers tips about how best to get to sites via public transport and suchlike. One cannot he