The history of Britain revealed - M. J Harper

This is a truly original blistering attack on the standard history of Britain and the origins of the English language. Think you know where the English language came from? Think again. In gloriously corrosive prose, M.J. Harper destroys the cherished national myths of the English, the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and - to demonstrate his lack of national bias - the French. He shows that: most of the entries in the Oxford English Dictionary are wrong; the whole of British place-name theory is misconceived; Latin is not what it seems; the Anglo-Saxons played no major part in our history or language; and middle English is a wholly imaginary language created by well-meaning but deluded academics. Iconoclastic, unsentimental and truly original, "The History of Britain Revealed" will change the way you think about the history of the United Kingdom, the origin of the English language - and much else besides. It is an essential but rarely comforting read for anyone who believes that history matters.