It's confusing enough for many readers of Church history that there were two Augustines--of Hippo and of Canterbury--and so many popes with the same names. In Celtic history it's much worse. According to the author of this often fascinating book there were 15 different St Brigits, 16 St Aidans, 17 St Brendans, 22 St Marnocs (one of whom founded Kilmarnock near Glasgow), and an astounding 300 or so St Colmáns. Elizabeth Rees doesn't attempt to cover all of them; she selects those who were most interesting--not always the best known, but those saints who had an important role in the early history of the British Isles. She tells their stories, discriminating between what is probably factual history and what is clearly hagiographic legend--early spin-doctoring, in which in many cases the stories of Celtic gods and heroes became attached, often centuries later, to saints.

Rees describes the struggles they had with the pagan druids and also, with surprising candour as she is herself a Catholic nun, the often greater problems they experienced with Roman Christians who, with their greater power base, eventually forced British Christianity into the Roman mould.

Throughout the book she fits the saints not just into their historical period, but also very firmly into the geography of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the North and West of England, showing how many physical remains still give testimony to their presence, and also how many of today's place-names, and even local surnames, come from saints of the 5th to 9th centuries. This is a thoroughly researched book from someone who clearly loves her subject