Landmarks of Britain: The Five Hundred Places That Made Our History

by Clive Aslet

Landmarks of Britain  is the history of the nation, told through the places where it actually happened. Each of the landmarks that Clive Aslet describes tells the story of a great event or figure, and the effect is a sweeping panorama of history, encompassing battlefields, cathedrals, palaces, and places linked with great events in the worlds of science, literature, architecture, religion, espionage, sport, agriculture, and industry. Sites include those associated with the discovery of vaccination and penicillin, the splitting of the atom, the writing of the Messiah, Paradise Lost, and On the Origin of Species, the coinage of the phrase "Anno Domini" and of the equals sign, the smashing of the four-minute mile, and the landing places of the rats that brought the Black Death.

Genres: Nonfiction

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Robert Bagnall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not uninteresting, but the prose is a tad deathless and some of the choices of locations smacked of barrel scraping to get to 500.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonable book, yet very light on details... but that is obviously going to be the case when you are addressing 500 places...

Some of the places are dubiously included... namely Thatchers[bitch] birthplace, yet many others are justifiably included.

It really goes to show what a wealth of history we have upon our shores... and how readily we desecrate them - nemely the site of the Battle of Naesby... now buried beneath the A14.

In conclusion... it is a book with more than you could hope for and a book that leaves you wanting to find out even more about many of the histories.