THEY BUILT ON ROCK
By Diana Leatham
Hodder & Stoughton . 236 pages. £6.99
ISBN 0 430 74627 0
This book is sub-titled 'Stories of the Celtic Saints' and first appeared in 1948. Therefore it falls into that category of books making their appearance almost certainly to cash in on the current interest in 'Celtic' themes. Essentially, it is a mish-mash of sources uncritically put together. It is also wholly out of date.
By publishing this sort of misleading book, which is as much about legend as truth, it is making it harder for the ordinary reader to gain a clear picture of what the so-called 'saints' were really like. The writer built on what Celtic experts now know to be unreliable sources.
