Accompanying the Channel Four series "The Seven Ages of Britain", this is an exploration of the lives of the ordinary inhabitants of Britain, starting when Britain first became an island at the close of the last Ice Age and ending at the beginning of the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Beneath the names and dates of schoolbook history there is another, often overlooked story - the history of the people as a whole and their experience of life through the ages. This book explores the lives and times of the ordinary people of Britain who rarely emerge into the light of written history but nonetheless were witness to its every twist and turn. This is a journey to meet history's silent majority and catch a glimpse of their experience of life in each age against the backdrop of the grander events of that time. It is the story of those who never had the privilege of making history but to whom it happened nonetheless - who lived with it and survived its consequences.