Face of Britain: How Our Genes Reveal the History of Britain - Couverture rigide

McKie, Robin

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0743295293 ISBN 13 : 9780743295291

Editeur : Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2007

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

‘Reunited at last! This is David, the brother I lost just 1,000 years ago!’
Feature by Robin McKie Observer 31/12
‘Flaming heck, first Brits were redheads’
Full page extract Sunday Times 7/1
This engrossing story is told with exemplary clarity by the Observer’s science editor, Robin McKie, who spends his life making complicated subjects accessible to thousands of British readers. This is their beguiling biography’
The Spectator
‘This engrossing story is told with exemplary clarity by the Observer’s science editor, Robin McKie, who spends his life making complicated subjects accessible to thousands of British readers. This is their beguiling biography’
Observer 11/2
‘While so many documentary series are fascinated by change, this new series looks at Britons who've stayed put for many generations...it's entertaining stuff: Oliver goes in search of the typical Cornish face, chats with Ann Widdecombe about her heritage and orders a pint in most languages he comes across’
Time Out 11/4
‘While so many documentary series are fascinated by change, this new series looks at Britons who've stayed put for many generations...it's entertaining stuff: Oliver goes in search of the typical Cornish face, chats with Ann Widdecombe about her heritage and orders a pint in most languages he comes across’
Time Out 11/4
‘New series revealing the results of a groundbreaking DNA study carried out by Oxford University, tracing the genetic clues left behind by the nation's ancient tribes’
Observer TV choice 8/4
‘What's striking about this programme is how much a sense of history matters to people, many of whom are determined to prove their indigenous links to a country that has always been vulnerable to invasion. Clearly, roots still matter in our age of multiculturalism’
Sunday Telegraph must see TV 8/4
‘A new three-part series revealing the results of a DNA study carried out by Oxford University, tracing the genetic clues left by this nation's ancient tribes’
Independent on Sunday TV choice 8/4
‘This is an intriguing programme, transmitting the unmistakable excitement historians feel when the elusive past suddenly takes on tangible form. And all it takes for viewers to share that enthusiasm is a quick look in the mirror for a glimpse back in time’
Sunday Times critics choices 8/4
‘There are some surprises in store, particularly if you come from Newcastle and have always believed yourself to be descended from dashing Viking stock’
Must-see TV, Mail on Sunday 15/4
‘Archaeologist Neil Oliver heads off to East Anglia and the North East to look for Viking and Anglo Saxon DNA and find out whether the locals’ facial features are similar to those of their forebears’
ABC, Independent on Sunday 15/4
‘At a time when national identity is under debate, this new series looks at the genetic legacy of ancient British tribes’
Pick of the Day, Independent 14/4
‘The ‘original English’, archaeologist Neil Oliver reminds us, ‘were East Anglian: Angles and Saxons who arrived in the fifth century AD to protect our towns as ‘hired muscle’. Soon, they’d muscled out the people who hired them, and their language and culture took root’
Seven, Sunday Telegraph 15/4
‘With a toss of his magnificent hair, the archaeologist Neil Oliver heads to East Anglia to see whether or not genetic traces of the Angles and Saxons can still be found in the population today’
Sunday Times Culture 15/4
‘How closely do we resemble the ancient tribes who once peopled our land?...Ann Widdecombe reveals that she can trace her family’s Devonian heritage back practically aeons. So does she look like a wild-eyed ancient warrior? (Quiet at the back please)’
Saturday’s Choices, Daily Telegraph 14/4
‘The people of various regions of Britain have recognisably different facial characteristics – our origins are, it seems, written all over our faces. But are Geordies really descended from Vikings? Are the Scots and Cornish all Celts? Was East Anglia all Saxon?
Pick of the day, Daily Mail 14/4

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Written into our facial features is a story going back generations. It is the story of who we are and where we are from - the history of Britain through war and conquest, migration and racial integration.
The Channel 4 series, Face of Britain, begins with the largest ever research project into the genetic make-up of the British public. The Welcome Trust has given a £2million grant to Oxford geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer to take DNA samples from hundreds of volunteers throughout Britain and find tell-tale fragments of DNA that reveal the biological traces of successive waves of colonisers - Celts, Saxons, Vikings, etc. - in various parts of Britain. These traces in part determine our facial features.
In effect, this project will produce a genetic map of our islands revealing where today's Cornish or East Anglians originally came from. The project is unique in that it uses cutting edge technology to question our accepted notions of our history. Added to this, the series and the book will meld science, history and personal stories to investigate our linguistic history, our surnames and placenames and compare findings with the results of the Bodmer study. Face of Britain will be a launch pad to explore Britain's earliest history while investigating why we look the way we do.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0743295293
• ISBN 13: 9780743295291
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 224