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In the Land of Giants Hardcover – 10 Sept. 2015
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The bestselling historian tells the story of the landscapes, peoples and culture of early medieval Britain in eight walks, an epic sea voyage and a north-south ride by motorbike.
The five centuries between the end of Roman Britain (410) and the death of Alfred the Great (899) have left few voices save a handful of chroniclers, but Britain's 'Dark Ages' can still be explored through their material remnants: buildings, books, metalwork, and, above all, landscapes.
Adams explores Britain's lost early medieval past by walking its paths and exploring its imprint on valley, hill and field. From York to Whitby, London to Sutton Hoo and Falmouth to Mallaig, In the Land of Giants offers a beautifully written insight into the lives of peasants, drengs, ceorls, thanes, monks and kings during an enigmatic but richly exciting period of our island's history.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHead of Zeus
- Publication date10 Sept. 2015
- Dimensions16.6 x 3.9 x 24.3 cm
- ISBN-101784080349
- ISBN-13978-1784080341
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Review
A personal travelogue interspersed with historical references, Adams comes alive when he deals with history and topography. Very well illustrated, with helpful maps, best for independent travellers who want to do their own exploring ― The Tablet
Offers many pointed lessons - not least that history ought to play a central role in our culture and education... This book reminds us too that we hold a collective title deed to the land itself. It connects us to our past and our present and to ourselves; and we sever this connection at our peril' ― Irish Times
Adams strikingly evokes the Dark Ages and reminds readers that the British landscape is dotted with far more of its remains than most would suppose. The combination of history and travel writing is always a difficult hybrid to master, but Adams has done so ably, creating a veritable gazetteer of the Land of Giants for others to follow ― Literary Review
Adams has succeeded in creating a bold account concerned with those timeless qualities that bind people together across centuries ― BBC History Magazine
A beautifully written archae-travelogue... an engaging and scholarly journey through Britain's landscapes' ― TLS
Book Description
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Head of Zeus; First Edition (10 Sept. 2015)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1784080349
- ISBN-13 : 978-1784080341
- Dimensions : 16.6 x 3.9 x 24.3 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 353,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Max's much-anticipated new book, The Museum of the Wood Age, is published on Sept 1st 2022. During Autumn 2022 he'll be appearing at festivals and book signings and giving a range of related talks; and a number of podcasts will be broadcast in which he's interviewed on the story of humans as a technological species and their ancient relationship with woods and trees.
You can find out more on Max's website: https://www.theambulist.co.uk. There you'll find reviews, pages on books, travel, trees and woods. You can also keep up to date with book projects, signings, talks and other events.
Watch Max's interview with Kona Macphee of the Royal Literary Fund, in which he talks about his writer's talisman: a camera. https://www.rlf.org.uk/showcase/the-camera/
Max Adams is an archaeologist, historian and traveller, the author of twelve books and numerous articles and journal papers. Born in 1961 in London, he was educated at the University of York, where he read archaeology. After a professional career which included the notorious excavations at Christchurch Spitalfields, and several years as Director of Archaeological Services at Durham University, Max went to live in a 40-acre woodland in County Durham for three years. He wrote and presented two feature documentaries for Tyne-Tees Television and made thirty short films as the 'Landscape Detective'.
In 2003 he won a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship to research the life of Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, which led to his first biographical project. He was awarded an Elizabeth Longford Award in 2005 to support research into the life and times of the painter John Martin; and in 2014 he was given a Roger Deakin Award to support the research for In the Land of Giants.
Since 2004 he has mixed writing with travelling and teaching. He was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Newcastle from 2010-2013.
Watch Max's interview with Kona Macphee of the Royal Literary Fund, in which he talks about his writer's talisman: a camera. https://www.rlf.org.uk/showcase/the-camera/
Max is Co-Director of Research of the Bernician Studies Group, a lifelong learning charity, and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Classics, History and Archaeology at Newcastle University. He holds a PGCE from the University of Sunderland. His research interests include Northumbria's ancient woodlands and the Early Medieval landscapes of the Inishowen peninsula in County Donegal.
The Ambulist (May 2016) is his debut novel, published in hardback by Beat&Track.
Max has a son, Jack, and a daughter, Flora. He lives on the north-west edge of County Durham, where he manages two young woodlands. Max is also a musician, playing drums, harmonicas, Appalachian dulcimer and low-key whistle.
Alfred's Britain: War and peace in the Viking Age, his most recent Early Medieval work, was published in hardback by Head of Zeus in November 2017. Unquiet women: from the dusk of the Roman Empire to the dawn of the Enlightenment, was published in November 2018. Two more books about trees followed, and now the publication of Max's latest Early Medieval narrative, the First Kingdom, is now published in Hardback. His next work, a history of the Ages of Wood, will be published in 2022.
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Lovers of the past, who travel around Britain and probably go off-piste in order to see the odd ruined chapel or deserted village, will love this book. The more hardy, who are prepared to walk through mud and rain and suffer the discomforts of camping, will treat this book with affection and reverence. Max Adams writes lyrically. His descriptions of the landscape and of the "discomforts" are wonderful. It is a pleasure both to the soul and the senses. He paints with words.
I have to praise this book. There are so many moments and ideas in it that will always stay with me and I am certain to revisit chapters in the future. Wonderful.
Adams looks at the landscape of significant Dark Ages sites, as they are today. He does this by means of ten journeys, mostly taken on foot, across the four countries of Britain with a coastal boat ride for good measure. He walks along Hadrian's Wall and other routes include York to Whitby, Anglesey to Bardsley Island, London to Sutton Hoo and Telford to Wrexham. He takes in the history of the people, the topography, churches and other ruins. There are photographs of architecture, coastlines, forests, ancient monuments and signposts, clearly marked out maps and they all follow Adams' journey chronologically.
It is a well organised book with each walk taking up a discrete chapter. The writing is personal and chatty making the book partly memoir and travelogue with heavy doses of history and folklore. Good to refer to as a reference if you want to take on the route yourself.
This is my favourite period and I know it very well. However, for the uninitiated this book may be confusing or even dull, so I recommend it for those who know something of the Dark Ages already before taking on this chunky book. A fascinating and absorbing read, very informative but more importantly it serves as a reminder that history is everywhere we look.
Max Adams clearly knows his subject and this book is a unique way of presenting this fascinating historical period.
Recommended.
Eventually, I accepted the general confusion and went with the flow. Although the concoction of travelogue, history and archaeological thesis is somewhat incoherently managed, there are enough flickers of interest to sustain the attention. Just don't ask me to recall any of it.






