Surviving the Iron Age - P. L Firstbrook

Tie-ing in with BBC1's first experimental history series, the book 'Surviving the Iron Age' by Peter Firstbrook follows our 17 intrepid volunteers living as in the Iron Age, sleeping in roundhouses in the depths of Wales. Filmed over 6 weeks, our volunteers have to cook, hunt and maintain their settlement just as the Celts did 2,000 years ago. Not only did our volunteers have to survive, they have to prosper - by smelting iron ore, grinding corn, cloth dying, skinning their own animals and brewing ale. It's not all physical graft though, as the Iron Age Celts were also known for their use of medicinal herbs, their culture, their feasts and the pagan religion. To represent this, we have a herbalist and a genuine Druid taking part in the social experiment. On the last day, our volunteers celebrate the dark Celtic festival, which became our Halloween. Packed with quotes and diaries from our most charismatic volunteers, this will be a highly illustrated, accessible but also extremely informative record of how the experiment worked, with historical background to the period and helpful information on British Iron Age sites to visit.