- Paperback: 144 pages
- Publisher: Morven Books (30 Sep 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0953603903
- ISBN-13: 978-0953603909
- Product Dimensions: 24.6 x 16.8 x 1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,133,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Avebury is a village in Wiltshire, roughly half-way between Devizes and Marlborough, built alongside and partly within an enormous earthworks ("henge") consisting of an outer bank and an inner ditch. This dates back about 5000 years. Along the perimeter of the inner ditch once stood nearly 100 massive stones and within this great circle a further two (possibly three) smaller - but still huge - circles of stones.
Relatively undisturbed for millenia, the stones were "rediscovered" by antiquarians like Aubrey and Stukeley in the 17th century. By then they had proved a handy source of building material to the local population. Gradually they were toppled, burned and broken up. Some stones received the same treatment for religious reasons. Others were toppled then buried. The same thing happened to the stones which formed two long processional avenues either side of the henge.
Then, in the 1930's, marmalade heir Alexander Keiller devoted his considerable wealth and expertise to a restoration of the complex. Lost stones were dug up and re-erected, broken stones were stuck back together with cement and iron rods, ramshackle buildings were demolished and thick undergrowth removed.
Avebury is so enormous that the job must have been daunting beyond belief. It took meticulous care, sheer physical effort and sackloads of cash. The job was never fully completed and it probably never will be. The Second World War bought work to an end and Keiller never recovered the energy for the task in the later 1940s. That Avebury - and the West Kennet Avenue in particular - is so glorious now is entirely due to the efforts of Alexander Keiller, the subject of this biography.
A Zest For Life is a lively and interesting read and obviously well-researched. It might have benefitted from more extended analysis at times but as a quick overview of this amazing man and the work that he did at Avebury it would be difficult to improve upon.
Keiller was something of a playboy with a love of fast cars and the company of many women. His various marriages and liaisons add colour to the archaeological details... this is one archaeologist who explodes the woolly jumpers and scraggly beards stereotype! There are even hints of a hitherto unsuspected bisexuality, more or less compulsory in biographies these days I suppose.
Keiller had the arrogance and caprice of many rich men and he trod on many people's toes. A Zest For Life does not attempt to paint him as anything other than that and in doing so the author gives us a rounded portrait of this last of the gentleman antiquarians.
I consider the book to be a fitting tribute to his energy and vision and warmly recommend it. It makes a good companion piece to Aubrey Burl's outstanding book on Avebury which is the place to go for a good general history of the monument.
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