The course on Hadrian’s Wall finished a while ago, and I’ve missed reading and learning about Roman Britain. But then I received my copy of the Balliol Record, my college magazine. It’s the usual mix of college, university and alumni news, and it usually is of only passing interest. But this issue had a book review of Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain by Charlotte Higgins, a classicist a few years below me at Balliol who is now the arts correspondent for the Guardian. I ordered it immediately on Amazon and it was delivered a few days later.
The book was very interesting – Charlotte and her boyfriend tour round Britain in a clapped out and highly temperamental old VW camper-van, visiting as much of Roman Britain as is left standing. On the way they are guided round various Roman sites by a number of eminent archaeologists – and were shown the key sites in Roman London and Colchester by the same experts who introduced me to them. Her journalistic training means that she writes very evocatively and fluently, and her classics background (and the help of senior archaeologists) shows through with the level of background knowledge she has about the Roman world. I did spot one mistake – the new excavations in Colchester are of a circus (chariot racing stadium), not an amphitheatre. But apart from that, it was very well written, and as far as I could tell, complete and accurate. I certainly found it a very easy and enjoyable read.
I’ve been to the majority of the places she mentioned – Christopher and I spent a lot of time visiting Roman ruins, including returning to Chester and Wroxeter just a few months before he died. And of course I’ve kept up the interest and the visits since then too. But I’ve not seen any of the fortifications in Scotland well to the north of Hadrian’s Wall. They sounded interesting, and may have to go on The List for a future trip.
