From the earliest pre-history to the 1990s this stirring account describes the astonishingly varied stages through which the British Isles have passed to achieve their present identity. Just as the islands have populated and ruled so much of the rest of the world, so they have been settled themselves by many invaders, all of whom have left their mark - from Romans to Saxons, from Vikings to Normans - creating an immensely rich historical inheritance.

Perhaps most dynamic of all has always been the relationship between the four principal peoples of the islands: Scots, Irish, English and Welsh. A History of the British Isles is not (unlike most other accounts) really just a history of England. Proper weight is given to all four, often fractious, components of the British Isles, giving the reader an admirably balanced and absorbing account - political, social, economic and cultural - of an extraordinary shared history.