Marcus Tanner is a freelance writer and journalist.
"a sensitive and up-to-date history of the language and culture of the Celtic nations... should be required reading in all schools of English history." Byron Rogers, Spectator "... always stimulating.... written in a tight and elegant style" Murrough O'Brien, Independent on Sunday "fascinating" The Scotsman "Tanner has concluded we must resign ourselves to the fact that Celticism is done, over, finis. He proves it in a very good and special book that every prodigal and true Celt should read and try to prove wrong." Malachy McCourt, Washington Post Book World "Lively... A thoughtful book." Publishers Weekly "An exceptional journey into the remarkable cultural history of the Celtic people... Tanner's experience reads like a travelogue and an insightful history with an emphasis on cultural heritage." Raymond L. Flynn, Boston Sunday Herald "An angry, elegiac and meticulously researched book." Christian Century"
"a sensitive and up-to-date history of the language and culture of the Celtic nations... should be required reading in all schools of English history." Byron Rogers, Spectator "... always stimulating.... written in a tight and elegant style" Murrough O'Brien, Independent on Sunday "fascinating" The Scotsman "Tanner has concluded we must resign ourselves to the fact that Celticism is done, over, finis. He proves it in a very good and special book that every prodigal and true Celt should read and try to prove wrong." Malachy McCourt, Washington Post Book World "Lively... A thoughtful book." Publishers Weekly "An exceptional journey into the remarkable cultural history of the Celtic people... Tanner's experience reads like a travelogue and an insightful history with an emphasis on cultural heritage." Raymond L. Flynn, Boston Sunday Herald "An angry, elegiac and meticulously researched book." Christian Century"
Drawn to pursue his roots, Tanner (Ireland's Holy War) learned Welsh to read gravestones while hunting his ancestors, an exercise that blossomed into a cause. Dismissing popular music and Riverdance as poor substitutes for true Celtic culture, as reflected in the language, he tracked each dialect's history by traveling throughout Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Normandy, and more isolated pockets where versions of the original Celtic tongue linger and occasionally thrive. Alas for Tanner, he found few people using Celtic as their primary language-over the centuries, church and state have combined to suppress what was seen as a barbarous dialect. Even in Ireland, where Gaelic is taught, it isn't well retained. Most ironic is the situation in Protestant Ulster, whose Celtic roots could bind it to the rest of the island had so much history not ruined things. Though he concedes that culture can survive in some form without its native tongue, he wonders how much culture is lost as a language dies out. At once personal and well researched, this book is worthy of consideration for academic and public collections.-Robert Moore, Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging, N. Billerica, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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