Product Description

This is a revealing investigation into the diverse history of Britain's most stunning sexually-inspired landscapes and monuments. From Stonehenge and Avebury to 18th-century pleasure gardens, some surprising Victorian outbreaks and the 20th century's landscapes of desire, Cathy Tuck shows how the natural cycle of fertility has been a central preoccupation in human monuments, with results that are sometimes awe-inspiring, sometimes shocking and often amusing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #569955 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 246 pages

About the Author
Cathy Tuck is a landscape archaeologist working for English Heritage and Based in Cambridge. She was the landscape surveyor for Channel 4's Time Team for two seasond and has worked as a landscape archaeologist in America. New Zealand and Australia.

Customer Reviews

A fertile landscape
This fascinating book investigates the erotic landscapes and monuments that were created over 5000 years in the British Isles, from prehistoric times through the Roman and Victorian eras to the present. The informative and well-researched text is enhanced by copious full colour illustrations.

The chapters are titled From Eden To Eternity (includes the Mound of Venus in West Wycombe, the Cerne Abbas Giant and the Long Man of Wilmington), Romancing The Stone (standing stones and stone circles), From Womb To Tomb (caves), The Goddess Landscape (including the Paps Of Anu and Jura), When In Rome (Roman baths of Bath, Hadrian's Wall), The Serpent In The Garden Of Eden, Licentious Landscapes, We Are Surprisingly Amused, Signs Of The Times (including the work of sculptor Tim Shaw at the Eden Project at St. Austell in Cornwell and the garden of Derek Jarman at Dungeness on the Kent shore, made of pebbles, poles and driftwood).

It is a very revealing study of a landscape that is suffused with fertility images, both ancient and modern. It really makes you think! The book contains a bibliography and a Site Gazetteer. I also recommend the book Stone Age Soundtracks by Paul Devereux, for another perspective on ancient monuments.

Well Written, Good Photoraphy, Amusing!
This book is beautifully written. The author has the rare ability to set the scene around the subject, making the book both fascinating and easy to read. For me it was the combination of historic facts and sometimes wonderfully amusing stories around them that made the book so enjoyable. The photographs that accompany the text are truly stunning and it is all too easy to become immersed in the shots and locations. Highly recommended.