Rating: - An interesting overview of a fascinating project
This low-key but comprehensive look at the fascinating (and not entirely successful) BBC experiment really satisfies. The author doesn't quite capture the tensions of the group or the relief felt after the troublemaking family left (probably to spare their feelings), and it doesn't have an introduction to the people involved, so it's a little hard to tell who's who at first, but those are the only real criticisms I have. What this book DOES have is a look at the difficulties that were overcome by both crew and cast in recreating a lifestyle that hasn't been endured for thousands of years. We've come a long way from slaughtering our own food and a lifetime of backbreaking labor just to survive, let alone thrive, but the group manage to stick to it and fulfill all the challenges and obligations required to be considered an Iron Age community. For instance, I don't know how the cast EVER managed to take an ordinary chunk of red rock and miraculously turn it into a series of fashionable iron pendants. The most I'd ever be able to do is produce a hot, red rock.

This book also reminds us that the project wasn't just drudgery and endless meals of boiled kale. The visit of another iron age tribe and the building of a wicker man for the Samhain festival give a sense of palpable excitement and giddiness in the group, and the tale of the night the young ones staged a guilt-ridden jailbreak and thumbed a ride - filthy iron age clothes and all - to the nearest pub is laughable but also understandable. The part where the hungry group walks past a closed gas station and press their faces to the window to see the vending machines full of food and drink is a sharp reminder of how hard the life was, and how much we take for granted now. It's at that moment that you really feel for them and empathize as if you were part of the group.

The pictures are vibrant, even though somehow everyone looks cleaner than they really were, and there is a lovely afterward that sums up what the families felt when they came back to the modern world, and how the experience had changed them all. There's even a nifty list of supplies and foodstuffs needed for the project and a directory of Iron Age sites to visit if you'd like to learn more.

I really enjoyed this book. It was educational without being boring and fun without being frivolous, and it will keep me from jonesing until a DVD of the series is released in America.

Surviving the Iron Age