A Short History of the Celts

by Alex Woolf

The image of the visionary Celt has captured the modern imagination. Whether it be the woad-painted pagan warrior fighting for his freedom against distant rulers (be they Roman, English or French), or the fanatical druid harrying Roman legionaries through the treacherous and mist-drenched forests of north Wales, the Celtic idea represents a proud and fierce independence. Yet there is another sort of Celtism: represented by the calligraphy and austere spirituality of the monks who illuminated the Book of Kells, or by that distinctive separateness characterizing the so-called 'Celtic fringe' of Britain (host to still-living Celtic languages).

But as Alex Woolf shows, even these contemporary associations do the Celts less than justice. Northern and western Britain are merely the last redoubts of what was once a mighty and far-flung iron-age civilization, whose settlements extended from Anatolia and the lower Danube to Ireland and Spain. Alex Woolf looks at Celtic culture in its entirety, concentrating especially on the unifying Celtic language. He traces the Celts' development from their beginnings to their seventh-century nadir, when they ceased to be a single community. Encompassing Celtic religion, Romano-Celtic conflict and cohabitation, late antiquity, Celtic Christianity, Celtic art and the contested notion of a 'Celtic heritage', the author offers a fresh and illuminating history of the Celts and their legacy.

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2013

About the author

Alex Woolf is a prolific, award-winning author of books for adults and children. In his non-fiction he has written on subjects as diverse as sharks, robots, asteroids, flying reptiles and chocolate. His novels span a range of genres, including crime, mystery, science fiction, historical fiction, steampunk and horror.

Alex is a regular author for Fiction Express, online publishers of interactive stories for schools. Fiction Express is read by more than 150,000 students from 20 countries. Two of his stories have won reader awards. In 2021, he won the prestigious ASE award for his non-fiction book Think Like a Scientist. His horror novel, Soul Shadows, was shortlisted for the Falkirk Red Book Award. Bestselling crime author Peter James described his novel Aldo Moon as “a real delight, witty, ghostly and at times deliciously ghastly”.