Title: Ancestors
Author: Alice Roberts
Dates read: 20/05/25 – 28/07/25
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Number of pages: 446
Fiction or non-fiction: non-fiction
Subject or genre: history, science
Book blurb:
An extraordinary exploration of the ancestry of Britain through seven burial sites. By using new advances in genetics and taking us through important archaeological discoveries, Professor Alice Roberts helps us better understand life today.
We often think of Britain springing from nowhere with the arrival of the Romans. But in Ancestors, pre-eminent archaeologist, broadcaster and academic Professor Alice Roberts explores what we can learn about the very earliest Britons, from burial sites and by using new technology to analyse ancient DNA.
Told through seven fascinating burial sites, this groundbreaking prehistory of Britain teaches us more about ourselves and our history: how people came and went and how we came to be on this island. It explores forgotten journeys and memories of migrations long ago, written into genes and preserved in the ground for thousands of years.
This is a book about belonging: about walking in ancient places, in the footsteps of the ancestors. It explores our interconnected global ancestry, and the human experience that binds us all together. It’s about reaching back in time, to find ourselves, and our place in the world.
How I discovered or acquired this book: I absolutely adore Alice Roberts – we’ve watched a bunch of her tv shows and this one’s been on my TBR for a while. I’ve read another one of her books and definitely want to read more
As an aside – have I mentioned my crush on the woman?
My thoughts:This book made me feel like I was sitting cross-legged in the back of a Time Team tent, mug of tea in hand, listening to Alice Roberts gently and excitedly talk about bones for hours. And honestly? That’s my happy place.
Ancestors is everything I hoped it would be: a thoughtful, deeply humane wander through Britain’s ancient burials that’s part scientific detective story, part love letter to the messy, unknowable people of the past. It doesn’t try to tie things up too neatly. Instead, it invites you to linger in uncertainty — to wonder, to imagine, to care. And it does it with the kind of calm, bone-deep (sorry) enthusiasm that makes me feel like I’m safe in nerdy hands.
Each chapter starts with a body — sometimes buried with ceremony, sometimes in ways that make you wince — and builds outwards: what do we know about them? What don’t we know? What can isotope analysis tell us about where they grew up? What stories have we told about these graves in the past, and which ones hold up? There’s no rush to the finish line; Roberts is more interested in inviting you to notice the details, to ask better questions, to feel the weight of time in your chest.
I kept pausing to look things up — other burial sites, photos of grave goods, radiocarbon quirks — but not because the book lacked anything. It just made me want more, in that specific rabbit-hole way that feels like being in love with a subject.
Also: if you’ve ever felt frustrated by the way some archaeologists talk about early human remains like they’re just data points, you’ll love the quiet, persistent way Roberts pushes back against that. She reminds us again and again: these were people. They laughed, mourned, built weird things, buried their dead with care. They were not just prehistory’s NPCs.
Ancestors made me want to cry and then go dig a hole. In a good way.