It's fascinating to learn about the early inhabitants of the British Isles, and their links to the present inhabitants. It makes me want to send in my DNA to find out how I'm related; with surnames like Teaffe, Davis, Morton, and Hughes in my family tree there's no doubt I'm of Celtic heritage. It would be such fun to see which of the seven clan mothers I'm descended from. But this book is more than that; it seeks to learn how much of the Isles' population is actually descended from the Vikings and other invaders. Very informative and interesting reading.

Fascinating look at where the Celts came from and ultimately where the Irish came from.

Despite that normally I don't like to read Biology related books, I always have found Genetics fascinating even that Biology and Anatomy are not in my scope of interest. I could understand this book pretty well as it was very well told by its author Bryan Sykes.
The journey begins explaining the origins of the current group of people living in Britain and Ireland and how it develop into today's. Mr Sykes also uses some chapters to explain his methods and do a reminder class about mithocondrial cells and chromosome before deep diving into each region of the British Isles with a straight-forward and fun account and its results.
The method used by Sykes can be explained briefly as searching for the m-ADN for the female population and Y chromosome in the ADN of male groups and associating it into larger clans based on Mr. Sykes previous researchs'-don't despair, as the book contains everything you need to understand, but if you want to deep dive go to Sykes' previous works.
A final chapter summarizes all and gives it a surprising conclusion -at least for me- as the usuals books that I read involve Saxons, Angles and Nordic people. I am not spoiling anything, though my expectations were a more balanced set of certain group of people.
A great book indeed, worthy of a read, especially for those interested in the development of the British Isles and its people.

Excellent history

Very well structured history, but I will have to read again. A lot of information to absorb but presented in easily understood way. Now I'm going to have to read his previous publications.

Grave robbing, Incan blood transfusions, linguistics, stone age and ice age human migration, Arthurian legends, political manipulation and subterfuge, racism, mitochondrial Eve, pseudoscience, archaeology, anthropology, mythology, genetics, microbiology, Romans,  architecture, invasion, long lost artifacts - this book will simultaneously make you feel completely out of your depth and also much smarter for having read it.

I picked this book up randomly when searching for books on Europe, not really paying attention to the actual title or focus, but as someone who is interested in genealogy, and whose own ancestry is almost exclusively Celtic, Viking, and Saxon, this was a surprising and very enjoyable read. It is so dense and dry in places that I have to take off half a star, but the author's dedication to focusing on the emotional connection despite the cold math is a comfort and a relief.

I was not sure what to expect with this one. I've read a lot of articles about genetic archeology leading up to opening this book and I have already had some idea of how gentic science works. I have also read other critiques of Sykes as a scientist and researcher as well as critiques of other books he's written by other scientists. So far, few doubt the completeness or impact of his work in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom. I will admit when I saw his website and the prices for having your own DNA anylized I wondered if he had gone over to the darkside of commercialism or the even darker side of commercialism mixed with science rather than science mixed with anthroplogy.

This book and other critiques of Bryan Sykes works, including being able to read the published scientific studies, have cleared up most of those concerns. Bryan Sykes is a notable expert in his feild and, though he could have, he barely mentioned his "fee for service" sideline. I would note that this mention came as one of the ways he has been able to expand his database. So, where as most of my concerns were quickly dispelled my worries that this might turn into an advertisement for his Oxford Group linger, though greatly diminished, in the back of my mind.

One of the things that I liked about the book is how sykes made some attempt to keep it interesting without crossing over to fictionalizing the past which is the knock on his book The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry He payed more respect to myths, legends and origin stories than many writers who specialize in that type of history and, through science, he dispelled some common misconceptions of what humanity was like before Summeria and Rome and shored up some concepts that had been weak theories using genetic science as the glue. Respect to cultures, beliefs, heritage, but still, this is a book about science.

Perhaps one of the strongest, though shortest, discussed points, came early on where sykes explains what we can learn through Genetic Archeology and what we cannot. I was particulalarly greatful for his paing attention to the rise of racism. Despite so-called claims, racists have little or no science to support their clams and no effective means of studying anything scientifically. Racists often argue their case as a genetic issue. Bryan Sykes stabs this concept through the heart. The idea of that there is anything that remotely resembles genetic superiority is completely despelled by genetic science. Race as it pretans to racism, predjudice and bias is a function of culture. The entire human genetic spectrum including the gene sets that are farthest apart from eachother is barely distinguishable from one end to the other. This is not so in other species. What a great thought? Genetic Archeology, rather than seeing a superior genetic string, finds that we are even more alike physiologically than ever believed possible before.

Sykes takes care, when explaining genetic science, to make sure he is not speaking over the knowledge level of his average reader's head. Sometimes he's too careful about that. Trust me, if I'm reading a book about the genetic history of the British Isle, then I am likely capable of understandign deeper explaination than what Sykes gives. On the other hand, I'm glad that I didn't have to stop listening (audiobook) and look stuff up to understand what he's talking about as I have other non-fiction books. He also did a good job of putting genes in context so that, after his explaination, I was ready climb to the next scientific tier and less likely to make the gross leap to faulty conclusion. So, though I wanted more, good job on that too, Dr. Sykes.

I liked the stories Sykes added about conducting his research except for one part. Apparently he's read Robert Cialdini. The hot science ladies were the best he had at convincing people to give up their DNA for science. Uh...yeah, no kiding "Bryan." What does that say about the genetic advancment of the "Y-chromisome?" I am glad that his realization of how effective the two Attractive ladies of science were at recruiting volunteers (ever seen the add for "Meet Farm Girls dot com?") came well after he applauded their ideas and intelligent decisions. At least he had the good sense to notice that the people who worked at the inns and bead and breakfast establishments where they stayed were less excited to see him return than them.

It was a cute story and, as a holder of the inmfamous (notorious in some circles) Y chromisome myself, I completely get how it's great to be in the car with the hot science Ladies. Unfortunately, as much as Sykes sought to express his grattitude at their "developed skill in recuriting donors" this anecdote probably does give us a hint at why one is now a lawyer and the other a forensic specialist rather than staying with the program as Genetic Research Scientists. What was their value to the team again? Good "Recruiting?" or were they intelligent scientists? What about their contributions to science and to your ground breaking study? So, I took a star away for Y-Chromisomic attitudes and behavior even though I'm not sure I am in anyway immune to it.

That said, most of this book was about science, history, archeology and mythology and most of it was entertaining, enlightening and worth reading. I am going to read the book he wrote about his work in North America though I have heard that it is not nearly as thurough as his genetic archeology in the United Kingdom and Europe.

I also wonder why he did not make some connections between his work and findings that have kept me curious about migration of humans such as: how the genetic history of Helenas clan matches the Brutus origin Legend or how the Sonorri history/legend matches both the migration of the Viking clans (Sigurd) and gives a different take on the spread of what we understand as the Norse mythos that suggests that Odin (a person) might have been more influential than Jesus in the development of Western culture and our moral pshychology and ethics.

At any rate, this is a good read, and very interesting, even enlightening. The science is good and appears sound. Though it is told in an almost story like narrative, that narrative is supported by science, not fictionalized in the way that he ended his last book. I'm not sure what it tells us, but I'm reasonably certain that it tells us something important about ourselves... even if it's about you beautiful British people and not us Ugly Americans.

Worse read of the year so far.

Perhaps I've been a touch unfair to Prof Sykes but as I've a) got his previous books and b) have a history degree most of this book was skipped over. The actual parts about the DNA analysis and results was fascinating stuff though.

What is most striking about this book is how well written and lyrical the writing is, given that it is done so by someone trained in the hard sciences. The paragraphs describing the varied landscapes of Britain or the colorful mythical origins are a joy to read. The next most striking aspect if this book is how many topics are covered. This book brought a lot more than expected - concise history, ancient lore, basic biology and genetics, and a virtual travelogue of the various people and regions of the islands. I'm not sure I've read a book which enlightened me on so many varied subjects.

Absolutely fascinating - our genes don't lie and by mapping the genetics of the British Isles we can get some idea of where the people come from. The old theory of the previous inhabitants being replaced by waves of invaders appears not to be the case. A more likely scenario is that the original inhabitants that settled in the British Isles after the end of the ice age are still there. The waves of invaders had some impact but not to totally replace the previous population. All this is borne out by the genetic evidence from analysing the DNA of the current population. The book is a mixture of science, history, legend and myth and it's a very good read. Will definitely get hold of some of Bryan Sykes' other books such as the Daughters of Eve etc.

The Celts carried the early Y chromosome, which provides the first clear evidence of a close relationship in the paternal heritage of Basque and Celtic speaking populations. “They were statistically indistinguishable’, we also noticed that there’s something quite striking about the Celtic populations, and that is that there’s not a lot of genetic variation on the male Y-chromosome, We conclude that both the Basques and Celts are reflecting pre-farming Europe.

Somehow these people have remained in isolation from the rest of Europe up until the Bronze age where their genes begin to indicate an influx of female genes from mainland Europe” said Prof Goldstein.
Geneticist Prof Steve Jones, who recently published a book called Y – The Descent of Man, said;
“Genetics provided more reliable clues to the distant past than language did”. He and colleagues at University College, London, have spent years creating a genetic map of the Y chromosome, which is passed by males from generation to generation. The results show that the Welsh are related to the Basques of northern Spain and southern France and to native Americans. He said: “There has been much less interbreeding in Wales than you might expect. Wales and Ireland have the most homogenous group of males of anywhere in the world, from the research that’s been done so far”.
He said; “The Y chromosome common among Welsh males was an ancient one. Most native Americans have the same one
The Solutreans of Spain are now believed to have crossed the Atlantic using the southern Equatorial current and entered the Caribbean and Central America between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago to become known as the Clovis hunters of America. Recent genetic findings suggest that the people now known as Gaelic speaking Celts (including Irish, Welsh, Scots, Basques and Berbers) are a remnant of a group of people who also left Spain between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago
During the most recent ice age (at its maximum about 20,000 years ago) the world’s sea level was about 130 m lower than today, due to the large amount of sea water that had evaporated and been deposited as snow and ice, mostly in the Laurentide ice sheet. The majority of this had melted by about 10,000 years ago.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_leve...
Recent studies of the tool kits of the first Americans suggest an entry from Spain and not from Siberia. Not only this, but paleolithic Caucasian genes appear to form the basal layer of the genetic makeup of many native Americans, helping to confirm a trans-Atlantic entry into Central America between 18,000 and 12,000 years ago. Recent discoveries of three 13,000 year old Cro magnon man skeletons in an underwater cave in the Bahamas suggests that the above is true and correct.
In 1977, University of Kentucky archaeologist Thomas Dillehay began excavating this ancient settlement, which had been remarkably preserved under a blanket of peat. Radiocarbon dating fixed the site at 14,850 years old, centuries before the Clovis had even begun their trek southward.
“There was considerable diversity among the early people(of America); they were much more diverse than Native Americans today. So somehow that diversity was reduced,”
says Richard Jantz, the University of Tennessee anthropologist who has been studying these ancient crania.

This book was not at all what I expected. I thought it would be as academic and in-depth as Anthony's "The Horse, The Wheel, and Language", but instead, many concepts were grossly oversimplified, and Sykes assigns haplogroups cute little pet names, as he does in "The Seven Daughters of Eve".

Perhaps this is my fault - perhaps I should have researched the book more thoroughly before reading it. One of the most disappointing things about this book is that it is more of a general history of the British Isles than it is a book about the genetics of the British Isles. I feel duped by the title - the portion of the book that actually discusses population genetics is vanishingly small. And what's even weirder is that the part that discusses England - the most interesting and diverse region of the Isles - is only about the last tenth of the book.

Sykes' conclusion that the Isles is mostly genetically Celtic, both matrilineally and patrilineally, is a dated one that has been superseded by recent developments in our understanding of the field.

Oddly enough, I think this book will be most useful to future historians who are curious about how the field of population genetics began. For the modern reader, it is a quirky, outdated text, often entertaining but not particularly informative.