When Government Was Good: Memories of a Life in Politics

The central question of the book is whether the ancient Celts of Britain and Ireland actually existed as an ethnic race, or whether they were a more recent invention. The book is aimed at both the interested lay-reader and an academic audience. James discusses Celtic imagery, documentary sources and material evidence recovered through archaeology. He discusses how and why the myth of the Celts was created as well as providing a new ethnic history of Britain and Ireland from the Late Bronze Age to the Middle Iron Age.