title: The Sea Kingdoms: The History of Celtic Britain and Ireland
author:  Alistair Moffat 
description: Alistair Moffat was responsible for turning a rough, ragbag and forgettable part of the Edinburgh Festival into the Fringe we know today. It was he who brought the comics - starting with Rowan Atkinson - and the world-wide fame and notoriety which followed. Then he went into TV and ended up Managing Director of Scottish Television, a job he left recently to concentrate on individual writing and television projects. His first book, published by Weidenfeld, Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms, sold over 17,000 copies. This is his second. He is an expert in Scottish Gaelic and history.
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  # A Child's History of England
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Charles Dickens
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### CHAPTER I - ANCIENT ENGLAND AND THE ROMANS
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  IF you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand
  
  
  upper corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, two Islands lying in the
  
  
  sea. They are England and Scotland, and Ireland. England and
  
  
  Scotland form the greater part of these Islands. Ireland is the
  
  
  next in size. The little neighbouring islands, which are so small
  
  
  upon the Map as to be mere dots, are chiefly little bits of
  
  
  Scotland, - broken off, I dare say, in the course of a great length
  
  
  of time, by the power of the restless water.
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  In the old days, a long, long while ago, before Our Saviour was
  
  
  born on earth and lay asleep in a manger, these Islands were in the
  
  
  same place, and the stormy sea roared round them, just as it roars
  
  
  now. But the sea was not alive, then, with great ships and brave