One of the book's strengths is its long view. Readers who start with the later chapters will be drawn into the earlier ones to better understand the earliest history of the island and its people. A mixed blessing is the wealth of illustrations, achieved by crowding numerous small line drawings of different features and artefacts, trench and site plans, at different scales on the same page - sometimes without clear divisions between them. Some drawings and their labels are reduced so much in reproduction that they become unintelligible. The many photographs are of mostly good quality, and reproductions of drawings from old excavations are very convenient, as are the several maps and charts.
Hardbound copies are available from both publishers.
Its date indicates the continued existence of Sikels living in wattle and daub longhouses long after the 8th c.