The Tribes of Britain

by David Miles

Who are the the English, the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh? - a ragbag of migrants, reflecting thousands of years of continuity and change. Now scientific techniques can explore this complex genetic jigsaw: ancient Britons and Saxons, Celts and Romans, Vikings and Normans, and the more recent migrations which have created these multicultural islands.

Drawing on the most recent discoveries, this book both challenges traditional viewsw of history and provides new insight into who we are today.

Massively informative and earthily evocative, it does some of the preliminary worl necessary to understand, if not cure, our current identity crisis. - Sunday Times

A huge and fascinating subject... There is much to be learned here - Sunday Telegraph

Miles's copiously fascinating account... is not only highly enjoyable and instructive, but very timely - Independent on Sunday

Cover Illustration: Tom Gould

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Anthropology, British Literature, Ancient History, Science

496 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
(3)archaeology

Miles, David, 1947-
from Library of Congress website

Reviews

[Deodand · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great readable book, written by someone with the deep knowledge that makes every sentence ring true. I was skating at top speed over the crust of British history, but I learned plenty - including the all-important difference between the English and the Britons, and how we British descendants are likely chock full of Roman and Norse DNA.

I did wish for the middle part to be a bit less about kings. I realize that their history get the best coverage but I was looking for more stuff about the common people.

[Simon Marriott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brings new insight to our past mostly by adding population estimates to it. Much of the rest is well known.

However it's an extremely well written narrative, which is very accessible, and worth re-reading when modern day nonsense is spoken about our national identity

[Alex Scroxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book in the mid ‘00s as a fresh-faced anthropology graduate motivated to learn more about pre-Roman Britain and then never read it.

Picking it off the shelf on a frosty November evening in 2022, I found a reasonably enjoyable primer on ancient British history, but that’s as far as The Tribes of Britain goes, and really, that’s what it should have been; David Miles would clearly prefer to have written a book that stopped in 1485 and frankly, I would prefer he had as well…

Unfortunately, The Tribes of Britain runs out of steam rapidly as it heads into the modern period, and the Victorian and 20th Century chapters are hardly worth reading.

Indeed, with the benefit of 20 more years’ distance, and all the changes that we have seen, this book now seem to some extent rather naive, and is tinged with that distasteful small-c conservatism to which the baby boom generation has surrendered itself so completely.

I rated it up a star because it taught me some things about late-Saxon and Medieval England that my history teachers in the 1990s never bothered with.

[Philip Talmage · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful and interesting for someone like myself, with practically no education in the history of England prior to early modern times. Let down by a somewhat naive closing commentary on the current state of the country, as of 20 years ago.

[Gid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty unforgivably shapeless bit of writing (and now a bit dated too).

[Cole · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first half of the book is a decent look at the history of Britain and the movement of people from Europe and also internally.
It goes into detail on the life of the people within the country too, which is something that can often be missed from these history books.

Unfortunately it descends into propaganda masquerading as history in the chapters on the modern era. It falls for all sorts of untruths and one sided reporting on matters that would probably be quite inflammatory if written objectively and printed in this current political and cultural climate.

Not good.

[Paul Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me 18 months, including the whole of 2020 to complete. In places my interest flagged and the first half of the book I found more interesting, as it covered ground I was less familiar with, that also fell within the author's domains of expertise. Nevertheless, there were interesting new facts on almost every page. It is decently indexed and supported by some fascinating maps. I am looking forward to reading the author's other work.

[Emma Swan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The fact that this toon me over 4 years to read should go some way to explaining my feelings on it.
I’m not a history buff but this was less readable than other books I’ve read on similar subjects. It’s also pretty England focussed which I didn’t love.
The start of the book I found dull but I did learn some interesting bits and pieces from it.
The end I found unbalanced, looking at the more recent events with a bias.

[Ken Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

[19 Nov 2020] An interesting and informative account, but on many occasions it is distorted to perpetuate the left-wing political dogma that 'we are a nation of immigrants' etc.

[Debbi]

Miles takes the population of the British Isles from the Iron Age to modern times, describing the various peoples who have inhabited them. He treats the Pictish, Celtic, and British inhabitants in a broad, general manner rather than discussing the individual tribes that comprised those groups. He does the same with the Germanic and Scandinavian groups that came to the Isles. Very informative and well written, I learned a great deal. He includes personal experience from his childhood and his archaeological digs, as well as bits of literary and cinematic trivia.

Reading only 15-20 minutes per day--and not every day at that!--it took forever to read!!

[Ini Iyahdub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite all the good reviews, some good portions of Miles's assumptions and sources did not stand the test of time, which happens quite often when early genetic studies are involved... But still a good readable book when it comes to archaeology and anthropology . Just make sure to double check things before you quote it.

[Helen McGowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book if read as a potted history of Great Britain. It has since been overtaken by scientific breakthroughs in the field of Genetics. I enjoyed the book, the style of writing was easy to read and the research was good. It has inspired me to read a number of books from the bibliography.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough history of the inhabitation of the British Isles from the earliest detectable times. Fascinating narrative, although it required attentive reading to gain from the heavy flow of information and insights provided.

[Lucy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and evocative book, well worth a read... and particularly poignant with regards to today's political issues. Would've appreciated a few more sources being cited, but only because I wanted to delve deeper into a few topics.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[PastAllReason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical perspective of "the tribes of Britain" starting with first human arrival and ending with current day. Well worth reading.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting if rather pondorous at times. A good starting point if you're interested in the ethnic origins of these Islands.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might even need to give it 5 stars. Couldn't put it down. Had me reading excerpts out loud to anyone who would listen!

[Thomas B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now know more about my own country's history than at any other point in time... and learnt the lesson that countries rarely learn theirs too.

[Bimbum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting bits but I didn't finish.

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book!

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

very interesting