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| ARTHUR and the LOST KINGDOMS |
| PRICE : £ 20.00 |
| by ALISTAIR MOFFAT Published: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, hardcovers, 282pp, colour illustrations "ALISTAIR MOFFAT was born in 1950 in the Scottish Border country. He took degrees at the universities of St Andrews, Edinburgh and London, and played rugby for Kelso and his universities. In 1976 he took charge of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which burgeoned into the largest arts festival in the world. ... Until recently he was managing director of Scottish Television Enterprises. He is the author of four books." "Researching into medieval monks and cattle-raiding clans for a book on the town of Kelso in the Scottish Border country, Alistair Moffat began to sense the shadow of a mighty figure - Arthur, the greatest and perhaps the only truly British hero. After he had finished his history of Kelso, he began to kook in earnest for Arthur. And he found him." "Historians have failed to show convincingly that King Arthur existed, for a good reason: they have been looking in the wrong place, in Wales or the Weast of England. The real Arthur Alistair Moffat argues, was not a king but a cavalry general, a prince of a Welsh-speaking southern Scottish tribe known as the Votadini by the Romans and the Gododdin by themselves. In a brilliant campaign, fought mostly in Scotland, Arthur defeated the Picts to the North and the Angles to the south. He halted the tide of invasion for a generation and gave Celtic Britain a breathing space to regroup and for parts of it to survive." "Alistair Moffat's conclusions are based, not only on archaeology and documents but also on an analysis of the ancient place-names of the rivers, hills and settlements of southern Scotland. The author's search leads him in the final chapter to Arthur's headquarters - his Camelot - now truly a lost city ..." |
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