The author himself admits that this is not everything about Stonehenge but he does dig pretty deep. There is not much about the prehistoric peoples who built the structure, instead the author mostly explores the modern culture about Stonehenge starting with the medieval era and progressing up to modern times. There is some amazing artwork included as well as some very diverse items like the program of a play put on at Stonehenge and advertising that featured the sarsens.

read 8/6/2023 ( )

Chippindale's work was full of fabulous interpretations of this famous prehistoric site. Chippindale tries to keep an unbiased approach to all the theories (both viable and unviable) and even argues his own. For instance, he argues that the north-east/south-west alignment of Stonehenge was not necessarily for the midsummer solstice--as many people would believe. He argues that it was designed for the midwinter solstice due to the reverent structure of the inner blue horseshoe. The inner blue horseshoe's stones gradually get larger when reaching the sacred space--which he concludes as when one walks in the site from the north-east towards the sacred space to the south-west--in the same direction as the midwinter sunset. He continues further to compare Stonehenge to Newgrange (another prehistoric site in eastern Ireland), which is aligned with the midwinter sunrise (instead of sunset; but midwinter solstice regardless).

Chippindale makes more speculations as to what he believes Stonehenge's original purpose and construction method was. But he doesn't "force" his own beliefs on his readers. The writing is in an easy to understand language, and is full of colorful and helpful illustrations. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to know the basics of this fabulous and mystical site. ( )