Talk:Peter Berresford Ellis

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This is a very good article, considering its youth. A few obvious questions remain, though... (1) Where does he live now? and in the years since he left Cornwall in 1968? (2) I assume he has taken up Irish citizenship, as he's entitled to. Am I right? (3) Why does the introductory paragraph privilege what he's known for in Cornwall? (4) The reader is still curious about his writings. What do his histories try to prove? What are his novels like? How have critics received him? (5) Is his surname actually Ellis, or Berresford Ellis?

Great start, however! QuartierLatin1968 17:51, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

I believe he lives in England now. Surname is "Ellis" - Berresford is a middle name.

He actually has some "fame" in all the Celtic countries. Not great fame, but he's famous in Ireland for Sister Fidelma, and in Scotland he's well known for his work on the 1820 rebellion. --MacRusgail 18:22, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

p.s. I confess I am not a fan of his novels. He has met mixed reactions.

[edit] Merge?

Of course. Tthe pseudonym article should be merged in with this one. --Sean Lotz 18:39, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

• Merge --MacRusgail 19:46, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

• Merge The pseudonym entry should be a part of this entry. DuncanHill 11:50, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism

Mr Berresford Ellis' historical work has recieved some criticism from the academic community, might it be worth including this on this page ?

Of course. But this statement is in itself a bit one-sided. Some of the academic community agree with some of his assertions, and disagree with others. While some write him off as a crank, not all of them do. --MacRusgail 17:09, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

How is the academic community defined? Is it a body with only one opinion on any given topic? If not, how is disapproval by some of its members significant? Whathojeeves 00:07, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

The academic community could be defined as those who can get their essays/papers published in peer-reviewed journals, work in tertiary education etc. --MacRusgail 12:13, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Ergo ... ? Whathojeeves 23:24, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

You're asking me a question which post-modernists have been scratching their heads over for twenty/thirty years at least (don't ask me to name all of them!) - however, there is a loosely linked group along the lines of what I describe above. Think employment, communication, qualification... --MacRusgail 16:05, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

PBE's books on the Celts are riddled with basic errors, alas - usually of spelling, but often also of careless expression (for instance refering to the Coligny Calendar as 'once thought to be the longest document in a Celtic language', in his 'The Druids' - no doubt he means 'in a continental Celtic language', as the statement as published is absurd.) I will have a look through a few of them and make a list of such errors, to be added to the page - if others agree that this is worthwhile. Some of them are shockingly bad. (I'm a professional Celticist, at a British University.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.67.160.169 (talk) 09:08, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure some of them are. The line about the Coligny Calendar should have been picked up by the editors - it's an obvious mistake, albeit one that can be rectified easily. That said, I have read some equally ignorant remarks in works from those in British or British-minded universities about the modern "Celtic" cultures. For example, in one of his books, the late great Prof. David Daiches, made the howler of claiming that the 19th century Bible was the first book to be published in Scottish Gaelic. In fact, there were several before that. Moreover, considering that there was no sharp break between "common" Gaelic, and Scottish Gaelic, Séon Carsuel's Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh printed in 1567 qualifies in my view too. Daiches was a highly educated man, but ignorant of the literature in Scotland's other language - I don't entirely blame him, but the British education system which has tended to ignore such things.

Hopefully as the British project continues to disintegrate, we shall begin to see more and more balanced studies of the modern "Celtic" cultures, that will not be from a purely Anglocentric perspective. --MacRusgail (talk) 12:40, 5 June 2008 (UTC)