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An Accidental King
(Crooked Cat Publications, 2013, available in paperback and e-book formats from www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com) is the fictionalised autobiography of Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, the pro-Roman client king of southern Britain in the
1st Century AD, and tells of his struggle to maintain peace and order in an increasingly divided land.
"Mark
Patton weaves a fantastic tale ... vivid, evocative, and often brutally frank ..." Nancy Jardine, author of The
Beltane Choice.
"There is something mesmerising about Mark Patton's writing ..." Jane
Bwye, author of A Breath of Africa.
" ... The Boudiccan Revolt plays out compellingly and sensitively
as a tragedy ... with many losers, but no real winners; a far more plausible telling than the simplistic black and white portrayals
one often sees ..." T.E. Taylor, author of Zeus of Ithome.
Undreamed
Shores (Crooked Cat Publications, 2012, available in paperback and e-book formats from
www.amazon.co.uk and www.amazon.com) is a novel set in 2400 BC, the dawn of the Bronze Age, the age of Stonehenge, the novel tells the
story of a young man's coming of age against the background of a rapidly changing society.
Swept off course
by the tides at the end of his first trading voyage, Amzai finds himself washed up on the shores of a land unknown to his
people. Cared for by a young woman, Nanti, Amzai must first master her unfamiliar language if he is to have any hope of survival,
let alone returning home. With Nanti, Amzai walks to the heart of the strange land in which he has found himself, to the place
where her father, Arthmael, is building a shrine to the sun-god, Sawel. Together, they will embark on a journey of discovery
that will change not only their lives, but the lives of everyone around them, and perhaps the course of history itself.
"An interesting journey...I shall be thinking about aspects of this book for some time to come, and will
view stone circles with more understanding in future." Kimm Walker, author of Once Removed.
"I
could smell the plants...Could hear the 'rasping cry' of the gannets; even taste the brine." Nancy Jardine,
author of The Beltane Choice.
"A wonderful book, beautifully written" Jane Bwye, author of
A Breath of Africa.
A
visual tour of places and objects referred to in the novel is available at http://pinterest.com/markpatton/amzai-s-world.
Science, Politics and Business in the Work of Sir
John Lubbock: A Man of Universal Mind (Ashgate, 2007, ISBN 13: 978-0754653218,
available at £57 from www.amazon.co.uk) is a contextual biography of Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), ennobled
in 1900 as the first Lord Avebury. It tells the story of his early scientific work under the tutelage of his close neighbour,
Charles Darwin; of the role that Lubbock played in the controversies following the publication of The Origin of Species,
and how this led on to his own defining contributions to the sciences of entomology and prehistoric archaeology; of his political
career and, in particular, his deft use of parliamentary procedure to establish Britain’s first Bank Holidays, and his
struggle over many years to put in place legislation to protect Britain’s ancient monuments; of his
business career as a banker and investor in the new industries that defined the age in which he lives. Above all, however,
it is a book about the connections that Lubbock made between his science, his politics and his business career, and about
the friendships that he forged between key figures in these fields.
‘I
can't think of a comparable figure in our own day and highly recommend this book as an insight into Lubbock's life
and times.’ Scientific
and Medical Network Review
‘It is a pleasure to read and I shall be recommending it highly to
students in my nineteenth-century science course.’ Charlotte Sleigh, University of Canterbury
at Kent, in History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
‘Patton's book...is not simply a
monograph but a 'books in a book' type of endeavour with exceptional coherence in the argument and consistency in
the biographical and chronological methodology employed. Anyone interested in political history or business history and the
histories of archaeology and science but also anyone more generally involved with the institutional details and contexts of
nineteenth century British men of science in their varied endeavours should read Patton's book.’ Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences
Patterns in a Prehistoric Landscape: The Archaeology of St Ouen’s Bay, Jersey (with Margaret Finlaison, Société Jersiaise, 2001, ISBN-13: 0901897329, available at £19.95
from www.societe-jersiaise.org/shops/books) is a research monograph based on field survey and excavations carried out by Margaret
Finlaison, Philip Houldsworth and myself between 1978 and 1990, and tells the story of the natural and human transformations
of a coastal landscape from 12,000 BC to the 15th Century AD.
La Hougue Bie, Jersey: A study of the Neolithic Tomb, Medieval Chapel and Prince’s Tower, Including a Report
on the 1991-94 Excavations (with Warwick Rodwell and Olga Finch, Société
Jersiaise, 1999, ISBN-13: 901897299, available at £30 from www.societe-jersiaise.org/shop/books) is a research monograph based on the excavations that I directed on one of Europe’s
largest and best-preserved megalithic monuments. It is an account of one of the earliest stone buildings in the world (dating
back to around 4000 BC) but it also tells the story of how the monument has been transformed over the millennia, from Neolithic
tomb to a Medieval chapel on a man-made hill, a show-piece for dubious 16th Century “miracles,” through
an 18th Century Gothick residence to a 19th Century pleasure garden centred around a picturesque ruin.
Islands in Time: Island Sociogeography and Mediterranean Prehistory (Routledge, 1996, ISBN-13: 978-0415126595, available at £66.50 from www.amazon.co.uk) is a research monograph looking at the impact of insularity on human communities on
the islands of the Mediterranean between 8000 BC and 1000 BC. Key themes include the impact of human communities on animal
species unique to Cyprus, Crete, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands; trade and exchange in the Neolithic of the Central Mediterranean
and the Bronze Age of the Aegean; the emergence of monumentality in the Neolithic of Malta and the Bronze Age of Crete, Sardinia
and the Balearic Islands.
'This is an innovative and indeed, thought provoking
book exploring the ecological and cultural development of prehistoric island societies ... It is a book for both the archaeologist
and anthropologist, and is admirable in making them aware of each others fields of study, but more importantly, the interaction
between them that is of tremendous value to both.’ Minerva
'It
offers a well-written, wide-ranging and up-to-date coverage of important themes in Mediterranean prehistory, and a critical
development of the starting point in Island biogeograophy. It reads well and will be much used.' Landscape History
'Patton's book is both timely and welcome because it compiles
and summarizes much of the research in Mediterranean island biography, and thereby provides a good introduction to the subject.'
Thomas F.Strasser, California State University.
Neolithic Communities of the Channel Islands (British Archaeological
Reports, 1995, ISBN-13: 978-0860547761, currently out of print), based on my PhD thesis, is a research monograph looking at
the development of human communities on the islands between 4500 BC and 1500 BC, based on the archaeological evidence available
in 1990 (publication was delayed due to factors beyond the author’s control). It remains the standard
academic text on this subject.
Statements in Stone:
Monuments and Society in Neolithic Brittany (Routledge, 1994, ISBN-13: 978-0415067294,
available at £80.75 from www.amazon.co.uk) is a narrative account of changing traditions of monument building in the north-west
of France between 4,500 BC and 2,500 BC, based on the archaeological evidence available in 1994, including the (then) recent
excavations at Gavrinis, Locmariaquer and Le Petit Mont.
Jersey in Prehistory (La Haule Books, 1987, ISBN-13: 978-0861200177, available
at £15 from www.amazon.co.uk) is a narrative account of the development of human communities on the island from
250,000 years ago to 55 BC, based on the archaeological evidence available in 1987. It was written with the general reader
very much in mind. Unsurprisingly, our view of the past has changed somewhat since the book was published, although the basic
outlines of the story remain the same.
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