The Discovery of Britain: An Accidental History

“No creature or nation lives life in chronological order,” historian Robb (France) observes in this idiosyncratic account of his native Britain. Moving backward and forward in time, often jumping between centuries in a single paragraph, Robb crafts a delightfully digressive work in which, at any moment, the reader might be transported unexpectedly across millennia. (Surveying his storm-damaged garden, Robb notes that “a tall oak born... at the time of the battle of Waterloo had been felled by the wind,” and “animals which had crossed from the continent on a swampy land bridge at the end of the last ice age had colonized the garden.”) Throughout his whirlwind tour, from the arrival of the first hominins, to the middle ages (when “the Earth was called ‘the Mould’ ”), to the seafaring 17th century, when Charles II printed coins featuring a “trident-brandishing Britannia” to try to inspire confidence in his often defeated navy, Robb delights in strange obscurities and wry absurdities. But a deeper seriousness tinges the proceedings, as Robb contemplates the rise and fall of civilizations and today’s approaching “climate chaos.” (Every age, he writes, lives under the shadow of its own approaching “Day of Judgment” and among “the memories of someone else’s future.”) With an entrancing narrative sleight of hand at work on nearly every page, this beguiles. (Jan.)