The Britannias: An Archipelago's Tale

by Alice Albinia

A revelatory portrait of Britain through its islands, The Britannias weaves history, myth, and travelogue to rewrite the story of this “island nation.” From Neolithic Orkney, Viking Shetland, and Druidical Anglesey to the joys and strangeness of modern Thanet, The Britannias explores the farthest reaches of Britain’s island topography, once known by the collective term “Britanniae” (the Britains). This expansive journey demonstrates how the smaller islands have wielded disproportionate influence on the mainland, becoming the fertile ground of political, cultural, and technological innovations that shaped history throughout the archipelago.

In an act of feminist inquiry, personal adventure, and literary quest, Alice Albinia takes us over borders and through disparate island cultures, past and present. She uncovers the enduring and subversive mythology of islands ruled by women―finding female independence woven through Roman colonial reports and Welsh medieval poetry, Restoration utopias and island folk songs―and sheds light on women’s status in the body politic today. The Britannias boldly upturns established truths about Britain while revealing its suppressed and forgotten beauty. 1 map; 14 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Travel, Geography, Audiobook, Historical, Nature

512 pages, Hardcover

Published February 27, 2024

About the author

Alice Albinia read English Literature at Cambridge University. After graduating, she moved to Delhi, where she worked for the next two a half years as a journalist and editor for the Centre for Science & Environment, Biblio: A Review of Books, Outlook Traveller, and several other Indian newspapers and magazines.

It was during this time, as she travelled around the country writing articles and features, that she had the idea to write a history of the River Indus.
In 2002, she moved back to London to take an MA in South Asian history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, where she researched the religious and political history of the Indus region.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most of us, the name Britain or Britannia conjures up a map of the main countries within this archipelago: England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. But in this book, author Albinia places many of the smaller islands at the forefront, from the northernmost outpost of Shetland to the southern isles of Scilly, revealing how the islands served as centers of progress and development well before the mainland. Her travels to many of these islands, large and small, include a historical overview of the role of those islands in Britain's history and mythology, beginning with the Viking raiders who settled and became Lords of the Isles and bringing the reader to the recent (and somewhat hushed-up) history of Nazi occupation of Alderney and Jersey as well as of the long-time tax haven on the Isle of Man. She also points out the ways that women influenced the development of these islands, whether in leading society or armies (hello, Boudica), in mythological or divine guidance, or in upholding traditions in danger of being lost.

Each chapter is a richly drawn portrait of a single island or group of islands with a shared history and location, including "islands" that no longer appear to be islands (Thanet and Westminster), and Albinia captures both the romance and the reality of each of these places, adding tidbits of her personal story related to her visits. I confess that reading the book took me much longer than my usual speed because I spent so much time swiping between the book and Google Maps to zoom in on each island and explore it with her. An immersive read for armchair travelers as well as those who have traveled the British Isles extensively. 4 stars.

Thank you, W. W. Norton and Company and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.

[Anshuman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice Albinia's "Empires of the Indus" ranks among the greatest travel books of our time, paralleling masterpieces like "In Xanadu" and "City of Djinns". In "The Britannias", she strives to create something even more captivating, interweaving personal and societal history into the book's narrative. Many chapters possess a whimsical quality akin to magical realism. The book is immensely readable, yet it may pose a challenge to those not well-versed in the history of the British Isles, due to the unfamiliarity of names and places. I highly recommend it as a compelling read, but advise readers to proceed with caution.

Special thanks to W.W. Norton & Co. and NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader's Copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author explores the history and mythology of various islands around Great Britain. It's a mix of memoir, travelogue, history, mythology and social history. Learned a few new things.

[Matilda Burn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant book through the Islands - really enjoyed reading this, and learned so much!

However, the copy I had has the tagline 'and the islands of women' - and I just don't think this was particularly women focused? There were nods here and there, which was great, but I would have liked more.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating audiobook. One I think might be better read from the page but I loved reading about the Islands around the UK. The Scottish Islands have a special place in my heart because my family members were cleared from The Hebrides in the 1850s.

[Faye Hollands · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 3

I found the idea of this book fascinating - telling the history of Britain through some of its most famous islands. The author also attempted to frame this history with a female lens (i.e. the history of women in Britain). Unfortunately, I felt these two distinct ideas just didn't really make sense to combine for an analysis of Britain's history.

I also found the author's writing style to be quite tedious at times. The book is a combination of the author's ramblings about previous adventures/holidays/experiences, peppered with different historical elements, dates and names. Albinia's stories were interesting but I felt somewhat irrelevant at times.

I would have also loved a map and some images of the things described. I understand it isn't hard to pull up google maps but it's a beautiful hardback book and feels incomplete without a map or coloured pictures to provide context.

[Rebekah May]

I want to log this book because I've spent a lot of time reading this but I don't want to put people off even though I didn't finish it. The writing style just isn't for me so I'm struggling with it but the content is really interesting.

I feel like I learned some exciting things that I've told other people about but this is a library book that I have to give back otherwise I'd spend like two months slowly making my way through it. Maybe I'll pick it up again another time but for now I have to let it go.

[Jaclyn Mulé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Each chapter is dedicated to a different island in Britain (meaning the small islands, not like Ireland, etc.) Tells kind of a brief summation of its history (the key points she wants to highlight) woven in with general travel dialogue. Poetic writing. I enjoyed it. She does this whole feminist lens situation which is at times interesting and at times far-fetched. But it is cool to read about how women influenced these islands.

[Matt Glassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

She’s really trying to cover a *lot* of ground in the book (history of the UK, as told through the individual islands, as told through a feminist lens, as reflected on via personal experience) so it lost me at some points, but I’ve referenced things I’ve learned from this book several times in the last week so it’s worth a read if you’re interested in the topic!

[BookswithLydscl | · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Generally interesting topic. The writing style didn't fully grab my interest but I liked taking a look at the history of Britain through its islands.

[Jessi Hines · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[John Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Britannias, by Alice Albinia; Norton: New York; $35.00
What strange histories are associated with ‘The Britannias’, the myriad islands which comprise the vast British archipelago. Of course, this collective name arises from the misty past. Indeed, ancient histories of these islands are recounted in Viking runes, scattered parchments, linguistic associations, and by no less than Pliny the Elder. This data and so much more, including modern personal accounts and literature, are all assembled to give an honest historical account of these strange islands. We learn of their mysterious histories and equally strange present conditions. What pleasure to appreciate those places, tiny islands, which surround the giant British Island itself. Alice Albinia, much awarded author, and travel writer for first rate journals, offers us not only history but hidden histories as well. The histories are hidden because they deal with oblique references to the role of women in the islands. Women as leaders, as caretakers, and as mystics inhabit these pages and are revealed to inhabit the long-ago histories as well.
We visit strange places, all traced as well as can be reconstructed from oral, later literary Scandinavian sagas, Roman accounts, and even church records. Albinia is a master at collating known facts. She takes us from St. Columba’s Iona and shows how a religious atmosphere came to prevail there, which excluded women. Thanet, another island linguistically associated with death, was none the less the entry island from which to launch intrusions onto the British mainland. The Isle of Man, and the Manx language, uniquely feature in that they, like the Udal islands, operate under separate laws going back over a thousand years. Their law is still recognized today. The Shetlands themselves are Norse heritage places where the very title itself is an anglicized name meaning knife hilt.
Albinia attaches herself to actual expeditions to these places. She joins crews, mystical journeys of self-awareness, even private sailors to better understand a location through meeting and discussing local understandings of these places. Some islands are reachable by sea, others by short flights. Simply learning the distances involved shocks, as in the islands equidistant from Norway and Britain. Often we discover that language itself is an historical holdover. Why a language survives has as much to do with preserving culture as with communication. We learn of the island of Alderney which was compared to ‘Devil’s Island, even worse than Devil’s Island’ in the Second World War. How populations survived wars, invasions, and starvation alone makes this fascinating reading. We discover that economic decisions on seemingly minor items like limpets and kelp were often the difference in survival or not. All told, the role of women, often buried but more often suggested, lends this book a dual purpose. We learn how the islands influenced cultural history, preserved valued practices, and directly affected modern folk ways. Albinia can be equally thanked for employing all these island residents, both ancient and modern, in a marvelous story of how these places came to be what they are today.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure. My copy is full of highlighted sections and notes. I just can't think of anything else quite like it, in a wonderful way.

The writing is lovely at the line level. I'm fascinated by the history of each of the islands (so different from each other!), which is meticulously researched but what I particularly enjoyed are the anecdotes and conversations with locals that the author experienced firsthand on her exploration of each island. I love her narrative arc connecting her own travel journey with the history. It's part memoir and travel journal, part historical text, and it's a combo I wish I saw more often.

The Celts, Druids, Romans, Vikings, and early Christians all shaped the islands as we know them today, and this book leaves no doubt that strong women also left a mark that is deep and ancient, in some cases despite the wave of patriarchy that took over and in others, because of it and their resistance.

I can't recommend this highly enough, as I said, it feels like a gift to read. I wanted to take my time with it. I didn't want it to end.

This is for lovers of history but in terms of fiction--if you like the TV shows (or books) of The Last Kingdom, Vikings, The White Queen, The Mists of Avalon, Jenny Colgan's Mure Series, or The White Hare by Jane Johnson, you will appreciate this.

[Melissa M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part travel diary, part history book, this is the British Islands as seen through the eyes of a person who was born in the country. Wife, mom, and herself an explorer, Alice writes from a feminist angle.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book but am rounding down because of the lack of maps. A map showing the location of each place described to me is essential. The scribbled drawings at the start of each chapter are worse than useless.

[Jonathan Crain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Albinia’s "The Britannias: An Archipelago’s Tale" seeks to reorient British history by shifting focus from the mainland to the numerous smaller islands that historically influenced power, belief, and resistance throughout the archipelago. Rather than presenting a conventional national history, Albinia constructs a hybrid work that combines travelogue, memoir, and historiographical critique. She contends that Britain has been misnamed, misunderstood, and misremembered.

The book is structured as a series of island-focused case studies, spanning from Neolithic Orkney to the Channel Islands during Nazi occupation, and is informed by Albinia’s decade-long engagement with island life. Her direct experiences—living, working, and raising her children on these islands—inform her methodology. Rather than adopting the stance of a detached observer, Albinia positions herself as an active participant, incorporating her roles as firefighter, school kitchen worker, and navigator of hazardous waters into the historical narrative. This approach produces a narrative that maintains concreteness, even when addressing long historical periods.

Central to the book is a sustained critique of what Albinia terms the “Anglocentric myth,” which presumes that Britain’s largest landmass has always been the primary center of political and cultural life. Utilizing evidence from archaeology, classical texts, medieval chronicles, and modern archives, Albinia contends that, for much of history, the smaller islands served as centers of sanctity, innovation, and authority, while the mainland often functioned as a contested periphery. This reversal constitutes the book’s most compelling argument, particularly in its analysis of how maritime routes, rather than roads, structured power, and how island autonomy diminished with the rise of centralized monarchies.

In addition to this geographical reinterpretation, Albinia advances a more ideologically charged argument: that island histories retain evidence of what she describes as a “continuous current of female-focused freedom.” She identifies this current in ancient travel narratives featuring prophetess-led islands, reinterpretations of Neolithic monuments, mythological figures such as Albina, and episodic historical instances where women assumed political or ritual leadership. Albinia does not assert that these societies were utopian, but rather that patriarchy is neither universal nor inevitable, and that the peripheries of the archipelago preserved alternative social structures longer than the mainland.

This argument is both provocative and, at times, persuasive, but it also represents the book’s most vulnerable aspect. Albinia acknowledges her motivations and selection bias, often extending limited or ambiguous evidence to support broad conclusions. For instance, her interpretation of archaeological sites as explicitly womb-centered relies more on personal intuition than on established scholarly consensus. Readers receptive to speculative synthesis may find this approach stimulating, while those who prioritize rigorous evidentiary standards may view the methodology as problematic.

The book is most effective in its analysis of power dynamics and historical erasure. Albinia excels in examining how islands have served as sites for military experimentation, economic exploitation, and administrative neglect. Her chapters on the Channel Islands during World War II and on the suppression of inconvenient archival records are particularly rigorous and supported by documentary research. Similarly, her exploration of modern “secrecy jurisdictions” situates contemporary tax havens within a broader history of island autonomy, tolerated primarily when advantageous to metropolitan authorities.

Stylistically, "The Britannias" maintains accessibility without compromising intellectual rigor. Albinia prioritizes narrative momentum over extensive footnoting, yet her research remains comprehensive and she consistently indicates where historical evidence is limited. The book’s structure is primarily chronological but is frequently interrupted by thematic revisitations, creating a sense of restlessness that appears deliberate. According to Albinia, islands inherently resist incorporation into cohesive national narratives.

"The Britannias" is explicitly non-neutral, with Albinia’s feminist and anti-centralist perspectives informing each chapter. These commitments at times enhance her analysis, while at other moments they may limit its scope. Nonetheless, the book’s significance lies in its insistence on challenging established narratives, prompting readers to reconsider questions of scale, geography, and historical preservation. Rather than replacing existing histories of Britain, "The Britannias" destabilizes them —and in doing so, reveals how thoroughly the margins have been written out of the national story, and at what cost.

For readers who approach history as argument rather than as an unmoving record, particularly those inclined to interrogate established power structures, "The Britannias" offers a challenging and valuable perspective. It raises not only the question of where history occurred, but also who determined its center—a question these islands continue to ask.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a Goodreads giveaway winner. Nice book.

[Andrew Macfarlane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many many years ago someone or some group of people in Orkney had an idea. They noticed that on what seemed to be the shortest day of the year the sun beat a path at sunrise along a bit of ground at Maeshowe. They started building a little hallway, path, tunnel whatever around the path it stretched gradually. After a bit of tunnelling someone pointed out the obvious “Look, Torvik. it's all very well building this but how are we all going to see it. The obvious thing was to stop tunnelling back and build a slightly bigger chamber so that more than one person could watch it. A circular, slightly bigger room. It worked a treat and for all I know, must be an amazing spectacle. Cut to the modern day and someone with an agenda to fulfill declared “they were building a womb” it's too easy to giggle and roll your eyes, but in the absence of any other evidence put forward or rational stepping back to weigh up the evidence, it's all I can do. The idea of them building a womb fits in to what it subsequently transpires is the author's desperate desire to prove and so she latches onto it. I started this book in 2023. After 3 chapters I had to take a break. I suppose I was expecting too much to think that it was a neutral trek around some of the larger or more interesting islands around the British Isles describing aspects such as their geology,geography, history. I didn't realise the rational was “is There a formidable woman i can shoehorn into this somehow” or “is there even a tiny bit of theory that women were dominant or revered (which they should be) which I can run With and hope it grows tenuous arms and legs". I learnt many things in the end from this book. The origin Of Margate Dreamland (a cut price poor cousin of most theme parks) in my home county of Kent. I learnt about the history of the ownership of the Scily Isles and the Idle of Msn (two of the better chapters) but I had to see a lot of corroboration to confirm it. By the time I learnt these, you see, I had had to wade through stuff like Tacitus in his “one sided reports of Romes colonisation of Britain suggest two intriguing - no, fundamental- things about these islands. The first is That the Britannias are sacred, secretive and druidic. The second is that they are associated with female power”. The author also falls foul of the Ossian myth. She declares that James Macpherson was no fake: true because he existed. He made his name and would otherwise have been a neglected anonymous nobody from peddling the cod-simplistic poetry he wrote as being ancient and that aspect is fake. The facts would not fit the narrative and so must be denied. 

In truth I debated within myself Whether I had felt it worthwhile reading this book. I don't want to write it off just because I don't belong to same cult as the author, nor because I just don't “get it”. What turned it into a 2 rather than a 3 is the absence of trying to justify, trying to explain. It is the presenting of statements and challenging one to accept or disprove.

[Stacie Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting and detailed about the history, traditions, and current status of the islands of Britain. The history was from different eras. This author put in the time experiencing the different islands. While I didn't need to know about the changing of her relationship status, that was minor compared to the intricate narration of parts of Britain that some may never have heard of, known were islands, or realized the depth of history. The one that struck me the most was the Channel Islands. It would be nice if the book had a map so you could identify where the island she was discussing was located.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great combo of style and substance.

Reads like an anthology - Each chapter surveys a different Island in a different era, so you can cherry pick depending on whatever you’re in the mood for.

Alice’s writing is informed by a mix of her experience visiting, archaeological background, and her relationship with her daughters which pays off in a witty and passionate personal account that made this an easy way to get back into reading.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Got this out of the library when I realised it was longlisted for the Womens prize for non-fiction in 2024. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. I wasn't sure what this book was trying to be- part memoir with history thrown in under a feminist slant. It seemed a bit all over the place for me and I got lost and bored. The exception was the chapter on the Nazi occupation on the channel islands which was fascinating (and deeply sad).

[Jbondandrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the Britannias to be a very interesting book. Very few people travel to the islands that surround the U.K. and spend time there and write fascinating tales of history that are to be found there. Apart from the Isle of Man I never went to the other islands with the exception of St. Michael's Mount and Jersey but they were very brief visits in comparison to the Isle of Man.

[Leah Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully interesting and poetically written, but some knowledge of the various British Islands is needed to fully grasp the content within. Women were more so alluded to than fully focused upon, despite the book’s title. 3.5⭐️ rounded up to 4.

[Angela Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical and personal account of the islands around Britain concentrating on the role of women. As well as gathering information about the geographical and the inhabitants of these isles we journey into the author’s experiences, her expectations and beliefs.

[Mark Pedlar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an endlessly fascinating, original and ingenious historical, geographical, literary and spiritual perspective on some of the islands that fringe Britain. The author has done a mindboggling amount of reading and research on each of the island or island groups. She weaves her own story into the story of the islands as she travels between them.

My only quibble was on page 340 where the author describes News from Nowhere by William Morris as a dystopia, which it isn't.

As an islomaniac myself this book has helped me understand my obsession.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kingdom for a map!! The little drawings at the front of each chapter gave me an idea where we were ("Irish Sea? This must be in the West...") but I would have loved a map at the beginning to show all of the islands.
Interesting information about all the islands that ring the large island of Great Britain. I never knew about the occupation of the Channel Islands in WWII, or the Neolithic archaeology of Orkney, for example. Organized somewhat chronologically in that each island represents a different period in history, together making a somewhat idiosyncratic history of Britain seen not from the center but the edges.
I feel like a meanie saying this but I wasn't that interested in the personal saga of Albinia's life during the time she was writing this book. It's easy enough to just skim past it when it comes up. And if you are easily offended by suggestions that women had power in early societies and that much of that has been lost, you won't be able to tolerate this book. It's more evident on islands what destruction is being wrought on the earth, and that becomes a theme the closer the narrative reaches to the present day.
So the book wasn't exactly what I expected (more traditional history) but it was still enlightening.

[Patricia Furstenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a writer who enjoys telling stories rooted in myth and tradition, and who favors strong female protagonists, I thought 'The Britannias' to be a revealing depiction of Britain through its islands.

Alice Albinia expertly mixes together history, folklore, and travelogue to provide readers with a new perspective on the rich tapestry of this "island nation." 'The Britannias' takes viewers on a mesmerizing trip around Britain's island geography, from Neolithic wonders to modern charms, demonstrating how these islands have influenced the mainland's history, culture, and technology. Alice Albinia travels across Britain and beyond, exploring beaches, meeting autonomous islanders, and discovering a subversive mythology of female authority. Albinia uncovers the lasting legacy of female independence woven into British identity.

This is a colorful and observant inquiry that questions long-held beliefs about Britain. With its incisive text and stunning pictures, this book is a must-read for anybody interested in learning more about Britain's island origins.

[Harriet Moar-Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really striking moments, tales and experiences. A wonderful way of exploring Britain through its far-flung outer edges that have remained odd and historical places.

Just didn't fully hit for me, I wasn't transported in the way I hoped I would be. Perhaps it was my fault for not paying enough attention but there was something that felt a bit surface-level about some of the stories which I don't think was aided by hearing snippets of Albinia's home life which gave the feeling of only seeing the tip of the iceberg for these places and histories.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and interesting book. The author details information about the various islands while giving you the history of the British Isles. Well-done. I really would have liked maps to show more about each place. I ended up printing out my own for each chapter. Pictures would have been fantastic also. I do recommend this book to anyone interested in the geography and history of Britain.

[Hugh O · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unusual and quite sad. I think maybe it's one would be better as an actual book than as an audio experience.