Blog

  • Book proofs – and women as authors of their own words at the British Library

    They’ve arrived! The proofs of ‘Military Households of Roman Auxiliary Officers’ have arrived from the publisher and I’ve got a week to go through them and send any corrections I need to make before the printing presses will roll (if that what they still do?). Maybe a bit of to-ing and fro-ing but very soon… Read more

  • Losing yourself in a museum of stories

    Last Wednesday I was feeling stressed out by onrushing book deadlines and went to the Story Museum at Oxford. I felt quite silly and self-conscious as a grown-up going by myself into a museum that is clearly ‘for kids.’ Never mind, I told myself as I marshalled my excuses. No. 1. I have a very… Read more

  • Romans and more at Bloxham Village Museum

    I have been meaning to visit Bloxham Village Museum for quite some time but life and work always seem to push it down to the ‘would be nice to’ end of the priority list. However, news that the museum was putting on a temporary exhibition ‘Romans in Bloxham’ meant I just had to visit. The… Read more

  • Behind the tweets at the British Museum

    Why is the Roman Empire like a carrot? Cause men need vegetables five times a day. That joke’s not particularly good but it is mine, and riffs on the now well-known meme that men, and particularly men struggling with modernity, think about the Roman Empire five times a day. It was probably in some similar… Read more

  • Party on dudes in the British Museum’s Legion

    Been to meet academic girlfriends for a museum day and really enjoyed it. This Christmas has been hard, and now things are picking up a little I badly need to enjoy myself a bit. I’ve treated myself to a new sweatshirt – it’s pale blue and has ‘Reading for Pleasure’ embroidered on it. There’s a… Read more

  • Hello agents, my genre is archaeologist.

    This week I’ve cracked open the champagne because – drumroll – I’ve signed with a publisher for my first academic book. ‘Military Households of Roman Auxiliary Commanders in Western Europe and North Africa: Latin inscriptions, Vindolanda letters and praetorium archaeology.’ A bit of a mouthful that tells a reader what they’re going to get. It… Read more