"Scarre reminds us of the inconceivable labour involved in the structures that continue to amaze after four or more millennia. The construction of the enclosures around Avebury required the quarrying of 200,000 tonnes of chalk, but this was dwarfed by the labour demands of Silbury Hill. Containing a third of a million cubic metres of chalk, the great mound is now thought to have originally been a straight-sided polyhedron with up to nine walls. Scarre also reveals new theories concerning Stonehenge, where the surface shaping of some of the stones may have replicated the bark of oak and beech. The great ring could have been a monument for the dead that imitated the wooden dwellings of the living."*

The Megalithic Monuments of Britain & Ireland by Chris Scarre. ISBN 9780500286661. Paperback. 160 pages. RPR of £12.95 though available from Amazon for £9.99.

* http://www.independent.co.uk/arts/books/reviews/article2464170.ece