This is an incredibly well-written reference book. It caters to readers who are getting into the subject for the first time without being patronising to readers who already have background knowledge. I liked the way the different sections were sorted, making it easy to scan through if you're just after information on a specific area, such as Wiltshire, but also helping to break the text into manageable chunks if you're reading it cover-to-cover.
I hadn't expected the sheer amount of detail involved in this book when I first selected it, but the amount of detail can only be a good thing. This is definitely a book I will keep referring back to, especially in my continuing Arthurian Legend research.

An amazing, meticulous, expansively researched and well-organized reference book that made me long to visit the UK again in pursuit of its folkloric roots.

I'm going to have to go against the grain here and say that this struck me as a neither a particularly well-organised reference book, nor a particularly readable narrative. The chapters were choppy and jumped back and forth between excerpts of folklore stories and the author's own dry detailing of archaeological facts, and only the barest minimum of connection was drawn between the two. I assume the conclusion I was meant to draw is that fairy sightings are often reported near ancient burial sites, but this is stated so minimally as to be inconsequential to a reader of any intelligence. The entire book offers no more explanation or conclusion than this line from its blurb: "Many explanations have been given for British fairies, but the most popular is that they are the souls of the pre-Christian dead, living in pagan strongholds like Bronze Age barrows or Iron Age hillforts." If I had handed in an essay at university with this little elaboration on the opening statement, I would have been laughed out of class, and I expect better from an author with an entire book's worth of space to hypothesise and present an argument.

However, this still could have worked as a simple collection of tales, but the organisation is the most egregious issue for me. It would have made sense to detail the location and contents of a barrow, then add stories from that area that can be linked to these aspects, but instead the chapters seem to be organised loosely into a collection of barrow descriptions, then a collection of stories, without any actual connective tissue. The author themself admits that the first two chapters, purely of archaeological description and no tales, were an afterthought. I'm also not sure why so many stories of saints and bishops were included, since these seem to have little to do with the general theme. This book just seems to be trying to do too many things at once, and for me, it failed at all of it.

Fabulous look at the history of faeries and other magical creatures in Britain. I love these tales and it's nice to see more research being done on them. I'm a big fan of Katharine Brigg's collection of faery tales and this one is right up there with hers! I'll be sure to recommend the book and even purchase it for my own collection. Lots of research went into the writing of this book. Kudos to Robin Melrose!

Thank you NetGalley and Troubador Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book to read, I really appreciate it!
3 starts - I Liked it!
Melrose writes with detail, presenting to the reader an abundance of reference (like a listing of roman settlements or temples, or a listing of stories about saints' lives - these were really interesting to me, because I am not that familiar with them; the stories about animal resurrection really reminded me of the Norse myth about Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, the goats with which Thor fed Þjálfi and Röskva and then resurrected) but tends, according to my opinion, to overinterpret certain data, mostly archaeological one. For example, his theory about the connection between midden and secondary burials and the belief in reincarnation, which I found hard to accept.
I have read a little bit more on the subject of these very specific types of burials and what is important about them is that the human remains are often carelessly deposited (most of the bones have traces of dog bites, some are charred) in middens, alongside animal bones, pottery fragments, coals and etc, most of time close to the dwellings. I am much more confident in the theory that early peoples, during the Neolithic, Chalcholitic and Iron Age, practised a form of sky burials (which is still practised today in places like Tibet), which would explain why the buried human remains are so fragmentary and have traces of gnawing, but would leave other questions unexplained, one of them central to the topic - why bury humans in what we now consider middens?
Otherwise, Melrose`s knowledge about the peculiarities of English landscape and its geography, and English history is on point, I can only wish I had a bit more context about these. In my opinion, It's a book suited for readers with more basic knowledge on the subjects about which Melrose writes. But even if the reader lacks it, like me, It's not a hard read.
Unfortunately, for me, I found his writing a bit dry at times, which made it a bit more difficult to concentrate, and some of the history and archaeology sections of the books were a bit repetitive, but honestly, I feel that is the case with most archaeology books, which tend to give an extensive information on a specific topic.

A fascinating and in-depth history of Britain’s folkloric origins through the ages. Exhaustively researched and written in a formal, informative tone, the book ties British history to its many varied practices, beliefs, and superstitions.

This is a book to be consulted often, also a very interesting read on folklore, and the related topics of burial sites. It can be read once, but I am going to make the most of it and refer to it often, as a comprehensive guide. Where it is not known what the origin of a word is, the author says so, which also impresses me. I never knew so much about different areas, and I consider myself pretty clued up regarding folklore. Not just Glastonbury and Avebury, but Hampshire and East Yorkshire, are included, among others. I am very impressed by the research that must have gone into this book and I would recommend it for general reading, but also as a reference book, to return to again and again, for anyone who is interested in this topic.