… or rather, NOT on Kindle at the moment due to a technical hitch. Apologies to anyone who’s tried to download it in the last few days. The folk at Bloomsbury are on the case, and it’ll be back very soon.
Many thanks to Sandy and Vicky, who got in touch to ask where it was.
Some months ago various kind people helped me put together some sources for finding out about Roman Britain. Here’s one that got away. I’m still wondering how.
“Roman Britain – A Sourcebook” (it’s hard to say it more clearly than that, isn’t it?!) edited by Stanley Ireland, published by Routledge and updated to a third edition in 2008. It pulls all the relevant ancient texts together into one book, saving not only time but potentially a huge amount of space.
I’ve been thinking for ages that somebody really ought to do this. And it turns out they already have. In fact they’ve been doing it since 1986. Duh!
Those were the words used by Paul Theroux to describe the writing of fiction in, er – was it ‘My Secret History’? Wherever it comes from, it’s a phrase that’s both true and reassuring.
More cheering advice from Geoff Dyer on the Guardian’s ‘how to write fiction‘ thread yesterday:
“…you don’t have to know what kind of book you are writing until you have written a good deal of it, maybe not until you’ve finished it – maybe not even then.”
I do like that Stewart Ainsworth chap. He’s the one from English Heritage who wanders around the landscape pointing out things the rest of the Time Team have missed. Invariably he comes up with a theory that makes sense of whatever the diggers have been puzzling over.
Sadly he isn’t (as far as I know) available to accompany amateur archaeologists on country walks. When most of us spot a strangely-shaped lump in a field there’s no-one to tell us whether it’s an ancient burial mound, the base of a Norman castle or the remains of the farmer’s rubbish tip. But now help is at hand.
English Heritage, bless ‘em, have come up with a real treat. The National Heritage List for England has an interactive map that marks up Scheduled Ancient Monuments, listed buildings and so on, so we can all see what’s where. Zooming in reveals a variety of symbols that are explained in the list below the map, but – and here’s the really clever part – clicking on the question mark symbol and then clicking on the thing you’re interested in will bring up the record for whatever it is, with links to more detail than most of us will ever need to know.
Being the creation of English Heritage, the information (altho’ not the map) naturally stops at the borders. If anyone knows how to find out this sort of thing for Scotland, Wales and Ireland, please speak up*. Meanwhile I’m off to check out the listed buildings of Lichfield, where I’ll be visiting the Library next Saturday to talk about Writing Historical Fiction.
*Later – many thanks to John, who’s just sent a link to the Irish National Monuments Service. They have a similar map at - http://webgis.archaeology.ie/NationalMonuments/FlexViewer/
Regular readers may remember that we’ve been to Maryport a couple of times before on this blog: the first time mostly to admire a very battered old tombstone and the second time to report that more digging was scheduled for the fort. The excavators were hoping to find out more about the splendid altars to Jupiter on display (along with that old tombstone) in the Senhouse Museum.
Some of these altars are in such fine condition that they might almost have been cut last week. Their miraculous preservation is the result of having spent most of their lives underground, safely buried by the Romans themselves. Nobody knew exactly why or when, but it was clear that they had been placed there with some degree of care. It brought a moving scene to mind – proud standards flapping in the sea breezes off the Solway, the troops all dressed in their best, lined up for an annual ritual of burial and sacrifice on a new altar presided over by the Commanding Officer. Or perhaps a unit ordered to close down the fort that had once been their home, hurrying to bury the sacred altars lest they be despoiled by the locals, and marching away never to return.
Well, they’ve dug. And as anyone who’s been following the story will now know, the ‘sacred burial’ theory has been completely overturned. According to the excavators’ final update, “the Maryport pits containing complete altars are, in fact, massive post-pits in which the altars have been used simply as packing. There was no ritual deposition of these stones – when buried they were simply convenient foundation packing material.”
You can read the whole of the excavators’ update here.* It’s a fascinating insight into how a theory that had seemed so plausible - not to mention romantic – was overturned by a closer look at the evidence. It’s also a reminder that our sometimes sweeping assertions about ‘Roman Britain’ cover a period of several hundred years. To one Roman building crew, the Jupiter who had been all-powerful to their predecessors was simply a handy source of stone.
Until, of course, somebody comes along with another explanation.
Meanwhile I’m mightily glad I haven’t written a ritual-burial scene into any of the novels.
*There’s a good article in October’s ‘Current Archaeology’ too.
Some of us have never quite got to grips with Twitter, but if you have, here’s a chance to write alongside some top authors:
Launching on 14 September 2011 for 5 consecutive weeks, Simon Brett, Neil Gaiman, Joanne Harris, Ian Rankin and Sarah Waters will lead a short story tweetathon in which authors and tweeters will collaborate to write a short story in 670 characters.
This is the brainchild of the Society of Authors, and it’s part of their campaign to mark (and if possible, reverse) the decline in broadcast time the BBC are giving to short stories. You can find out more here. Meanwhile I’m off to my very underused Twitter account, to see if I can work out how to spread the word.
Lots of good things happening in Lichfield in the first week of October. The lineup for this year’s literature festival is here and includes Adam Hart-Davis, Sophie Hannah, Douglas Hurd, Val McDermid, Eleanor Bron, Lionel Blue, and Colin Dexter. There is also, in the lower right-hand corner of the webpage, a writer of mysteries set in Roman Britain. I’m looking forward to visiting Lichfield Library on the afternoon of Saturday 8th October to talk about writing historical fiction.
I’m also hoping to slip into a talk earlier in the day about the language of the much-loved King James Bible. In preparation I’ve been enjoying a delightful diversion from the many things on today’s ‘urgent’ list - an online ’Shakespeare or Bible’ quiz. Since procrastination loves company, here‘s the link.
I’ve been trying to think of something clever and entertaining to say about the Greenbelt Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse, but it was just… too big. Too exhuberant. Too thought-provoking, and too gloriously diverse to pull together in a few words. (Which is a poor show for someone who calls herself a writer, I know.) At times it was also too wet and too cold, but the wellies came out, the banners fluttered bravely over the tents up on the camping fields, and the atmosphere was as warm as ever.
Thank you to everyone who came to the events I was involved in. You made both sessions a pleasure and besides, it would have been very lonely without you. Especial thanks to the kind folk who chipped in with plenty of intelligent comments and questions at the end, thus saving us all from a potentially embarrassing silence. In fact halfway through the ‘Lure of Crime Fiction’ talk it was looking as though it would also be a very long silence.
Something strange happens to time when you stand up in front of people who are expecting you to say something sensible. Despite several rehearsals, the plentiful material I’d prepared shot past at fearful speed while my watch (carefully set out on the lectern so I didn’t have to consult my wrist, as if even I was wishing I was somewhere else) seemed to have stopped. Then, strangely, I slowed down and the watch went faster.
Goodness knows what the patient listeners were actually receiving on the other side of this time-warp, but as far as I could discern, nobody fell asleep despite it being the end of a very long weekend. For that, and for much else, I am enormously grateful.
Heaven knows what fit of hubris inspired me to volunteer as a speaker at the Greenbelt Festival. As the date draws nearer I’m wondering not only what to say, but also whether anyone will want to come near enough to hear it. By 4.30 on Monday 29 August I will have spent five days camping in a field with a cold tap, portaloos and showers which have been described as ’Like trying to wash under somebody crying.’ Anyone bold enough to turn up may well suspect that I sent someone else to pose for the Author Photograph.
Still, the research for ‘Getting away with Murder – The Lure of Crime Fiction’ was a good excuse to get round to reading ‘The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher,’ Kate Summerscale’s fascinating look at Victorian crime investigation and the fiction that arose from it. It really is as good as everyone says.
Greenbelt’s headline literature speaker this year will be Stella Duffy, talking about ‘Theodora – Empress, Actress, Whore’. I started reading it last night and had that feeling of anticipation and delight that you get when you know you are stepping into the world of a writer who really knows what they’re doing.
Several technological goodies have popped up this week, so I thought I’d put them all together in one post.
First – many thanks to Mark, who’s sent a link to details of a smartphone app through which visitors can explore the sites and streets of Roman Londinium. (His original comment is under ‘Welcome’ above.) This one does involve leaving the armchair, as I think you have to be in London to use it. It’s the work of the fine folk at the Museum of London and seems to include the chance to pinpoint the find-spot of those famous leather bikini briefs.
Sadly I’m unable to test it since, apart from not being in London, I have the wrong kind of phone. If anyone can give it a try, do please let me know what you think of it.
The other three are all gleaned from the latest Roman Society newsletter. “Identifact provides three entertaining quizzes for students to learn and test their skills in classical architecture, Ancient Greek pottery and Romano-British small finds.” Allegedly,” This is simple to use and fun to try out.” It’s certainly fun once you get the hang of it, so it’s worth persevering with the mysterious zoomy things all over the screen. It’s been created by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Artefact Studies at Newcastle University.
The next goody isn’t as zoomy as the previous one even though it’s created by the same people. Inscripta is “an e-learning resource aimed at teaching students to transcribe, transliterate and translate Romano-British inscriptions.” You see a photo of the inscription, hear it read out and see it typed. Then you have a shot at translating it yourself before clicking to reveal what the experts make of it. (Warning – this one works fine in Internet Explorer but doesn’t seem to like Chrome.)
Finally, in celebration of their centenary in 2010, the Roman Society have begun to put the best of their large collection of photos on the web. You can see the ones up so far, and offer them your own, at www.romansociety.org/imago
That’s it. Now I’m off to play with them. If anyone’s found anything else along these lines, please send it in!
