The Stonehenge Enigma: Volume 1 (Prehistoric Britain) Paperback – 18 Jun. 2013

I enjoyed reading this but found it very frustrating that the writer constantly made claims that research and evidence he refers to is being ignored by main-stream scientists & archaeologists. He states his proof but does not actually prove anything. I do think the hypothesis has some merit but many claims are unsubstantiated and some are , quite frankly, inaccurate.The book purports to be a second edition; it is a shame he did not think to proof read it before releasing it as it has glaring errors that should have been corrected. Would I recommend it- if you want to read about a possible theory but are prepared to accept the evidence for it is, at this stage, flawed, then yes. Otherwise - save your money

Langdon's penetrating hypothesis, that Stonehenge originated during raised sea levels relative to land, is greatly supported by the evidence he presents, yet the implications are overlooked by many archaeologists.Reading this book improved my understanding, & I recommend it.Some further points:- How the landscape evolved through post-glacial flooding merits further consideration. The porous chalk of southern England will have formed a sponge for meltwater, as Langdon suggests, but seesaw downtilt south of the receding-ice rebound probably played its part (see, for example, 'Prehistoric Investigations' by Christopher Seddon, chapter 39). Sea & land levels have fluctuated on many scales of time & location, so dating must utilise all available techniques, evidence & reasoning (we should not oscillate from 'finds' to 'landscape dating'!).- Flooded Mesolithic findings at Bouldnor Cliff as well as Doggerland support the idea of capable society in NW Europe well before the Neolithic version of Stonehenge. Those people probably had boats & rafts for fishing & trading.- This book contains many strong insights & much valuable perspective, so its author's enthusiasm may be allowed to outweigh irritations of style & over-reaching to conclusions.

(Note: Edited and Updated May 2015 - See below)First things first, I guess the author's name is a nom-de-plume and that he is a fan of The Da Vinci Code. Nothing wrong with that. Just something which struck me and made me smile!Secondly I bought the full Kindle version and was disappointed to discover that most of the illustrations and colour plates are for some reason way too small to make out clearly. I'd guess at around one-inch wide on average. No amount of double-tapping to magnify will work. Well it does but in most cases it simply magnifies the pixels making the image big and blurry instead of larger and clearer. A great shame as this took away a lot of the enjoyment.The use of the term "Proofs" is in my opinion, sometimes optimistic. Yes, some are good ideas with plenty of evidence to back them up but others are perhaps too weak to stand up to scrutiny and just saying them with conviction doesn't always make them so.Criticism out of the way the author's enthusiasm is what carries this book along and his constant jibes at conventional academic thinking quite refreshing to read. He appears surprised they don't treat his ideas with more interest but I wouldn't be, academics, geologists, archaeologists etc., all fight hard to get funding to perform excavations and do carbon-dating and quite understandably their heckles rise when someone comes along and tries to prove them wrong.The notion of a more flooded landscape as the Ice front receded at the end of the last Ice Age is perfectly reasonable. After all the water didn't just magically disappear it had to travel back to the sea via one route or another and this wasn't overnight. There would have been many years, decades, centuries of variously soaked or drying landscape. Doggerland is central to the author's conclusion and leads on to his next book. This area of the North Sea was dry land for a lot of the Ice Age and has indeed shown abundant signs of long-gone life. It was slowly and remorselessly swallowed-up as sea levels rose. Frustratingly it is too easy to put a lost civilisation in this submerged landscape because we are unlikely to be able to find direct evidence any time soon, unless by fluke. The Birmingham University project in the area seems to have gone quiet in recent years, perhaps it has come to an end. They were at the forefront I believe.I have bought other books by the author because I enjoyed the ride, but a little copy-editing and bigger illustrations would be improvements!Despite my reservations this hypothesis deserves a hearing even though I felt more evidence needs to be brought to the table in certain areas. For example I am sure that if there were shore-lines where the author suggests then there should be more geological support. Perhaps no one has properly looked? Another thing to consider for such a civilisation is that if they were of any size - and I'm guessing that's the idea if they are to feature in folk-memory for thousands of years - they would need substantial resources to feed them. I doubt they could live on fish alone. A more varied diet as a result of arable farming seems to be what most substantial civilisations are built on, doesn't it?Perhaps all will be made clear in subsequent works. It does come as a breath of fresh air to listen to new ideas. The secret is to make your own mind up.

Great book

Pity t doesn't have the maps as they help in understanding the text - however, I presume it would take up too much memory, which is why they are excluded.

GOOD READ, I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN, VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND, IT MAKES YOU THINK AND BELIEVE, IN THE PROOF OF THE HYPOTHESIS