Neil Oliver

I tend to struggle staying focused on prehistorical books, mainly because I don't engage as well with archeological perspectives in the same way as I do with historical ones. Despite this, I'm fascinated by what went on in Britain before Roman times, so I gave this a go.

I've seen a few of Neil Oliver's TV documentaries, so thought I'd try his account of prehistoric Britain. Certain phases in this book are compelling, but other areas I found my attention drifting. I tend to lose focus when unearthed objects are described in great detail.… (plus d'informations)

In this deeply personal book, written after his father's death, Neil Oliver recounts some of the ghost stories and other hauntings connected to particular places in Britain (and one in Ireland), ranging from Cape Wrath in the far north of Scotland to Dartmoor in the southwest of England. Tied to these stories are Oliver's reflections about death, the nature of ghosts and hauntings, and why ghost stories have mattered to humankind since the invention of writing (and in all likelihood even before, in the tradition of oral history). HIs father's presence is felt throughout the book.

Where Neil Oliver succeeds the most is in the descriptions of the places that feature in the book, and he is able to convey an atmosphere that makes it entirely plausible that the locations in question are mentioned in connection with ghosts. His interest in people and their stories is noticeable, and he does well in bringing alive some of the history tied to these places, even if the details are necessarily brief and will require private research; many of the locations and their associated history were new to me.

Where he is not so successful is in the descriptions of the ghosts and other hauntings; while he writes well for the most part, every so often he falls into the trap of making his prose overly and unnecessarily dramatic, which I found incredibly irritating. Sadly he couldn't resist the temptation to use the odd pun in connection with a specific piece of history, which I thought was in incredibly bad taste, especially the first, which occurs in the chapter about the Battle of Aughrim, Co. Galway, in Ireland. I wish someone on the editorial team had flagged them as inappropriate, so that they didn't end up in the finished book.

While some of Oliver's reflections and thoughts committed to paper are genuinely moving and worth reading, others to me felt artificial, as if driven by the need to add something *philosophical* (on orders of the editor) – but maybe that shows only what an old cynic I am.

Now and then through the various chapters, and particularly in his closing remarks, Neil Oliver ties people's paranormal experiences to the Christian belief, which appears to give him comfort. I am an atheist, however, but the one thing that resonates most with me in the book is his observation that some of the events that he read about or were recounted to him evoke in him 'most strongly [...] that sense of something strange'. I have both my feet firmly planted in science, but I truly believe that there are things in this world that science can't explain and that defy easy explanation.

While I found it very interesting to read about the various locations, their respective history and associated ghost stories, I don't think I will seek out another of his books.

Below I've listed some of the examples of bad puns and overly dramatic language that caught my eye:

'The shock was limited at first to those who saw [the headless corpse], word not travelling as fast as the caput rendered kaput.' ('Aughrim Battlefield, County Galway', p. 25)

'Every square foot of available land was built upon, leaving just the meanest lanes and wynds threaded through the jumble, like constricted capillaries through fevered flesh. ('Mary King's Close, the Wizard of West Bow and Little Annie's Doll', p. 153)

'George Orwell (a nom de plume: Eric Arthur Blair is the name om his gravestone) saw the future, this future looming now, while he typed and coughed red blood in a white-painted house on an island at the edge of the west.' ('The Skye Ferry and the Wee Black Car', p. 275)

'Author John Vernon followed the unlikely trail of the tale of the emperor's tail [a reference to (the presumably mummified remains of) Napoleon Bonaparte's penis while researching a novel about it.' ('Number 50 Berkeley Square', p. 308)

'Every night they would have to watch the weeping woman bang her head until blood spread across the wall, staining it like a red rose blooming.' ('Mount Cottage, Dorset, and a Living Ghost', p. 324)… (plus d'informations)

It’s odd to have a history book begin with a quote from Blade Runner:

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.

But that’s part of author Neil Oliver’s theme; the Vikings explored the world from Novgorod to Newfoundland, but left precious little writing about what they saw and experienced. Some Icelandic sagas, some accounts from their enemies, and now and then runic graffiti: “Thorni bedded Helga”, for example, much like what was scrawled on the walls of my high school boy’s room (except neither the Vikings or my high school contemporaries used the word “bedded”). Possibly that’s more meaningful than you might think; a lot of Viking history is better understood if you think of them as vulgar and violent gangs of teenage boys, rather than grizzled old berserks.

Oliver gives plenty of background, beginning his story all the way back in the Neolithic; we’re almost halfway through the book before getting to the sack of Lindisfarne. After that, it’s mostly Viking history as it affected the British Isles – the Great Heathen Army, Clontarf, etc.; fair enough, since that’s where a lot of the accounts are set. An easy read. See Viking Hersir and Vikings in Britain.… (plus d'informations)

I read this in preparation for a museum exhibit I may attend soon. I like to know something about the subject of an exhibit before I get there; I find it greatly increases my enjoyment of the experience. (Should I admit to studying for going to a museum? I feel like this activity clearly labels me as something, but I'm cool with that.)

What I enjoyed most in this book were the author's personal expressions of following in Viking footsteps. Whether it was sleeping in a reconstructed Bronze Age house by himself, watching the progress of a modern day Viking ship along a waterway, or standing meditatively before the remains of various Viking burials, the author was obviously touched with a sense of awe, which is compelling to read about.

However, much of the book feels like very vague history. I suppose this is only natural when much of the Viking era took place without contemporary recorders of the history. I think I wanted more names and hard fast facts, and there were SOME, but more towards the end of the book.

At least I know now how Bluetooth got its name.
And, it was pretty cool reading about the Viking settlements on Iceland, Greenland, and North America.… (plus d'informations)