Tag Archives: writing

Hearsay history

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Claire_M

I’m writing a generalist book about Roman life as it was lived on Hadrian’s Wall and it’s bringing up all sorts of methodological thoughts about how to write this kind of book. These type of books, the books that appear … Continue reading →

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House haunting

Posted on June 9, 2025 by Claire_M

Splashing vinegar and sugar and warmed-then-cooled water resentfully into a vase. A recipe for flower preservation to ensnare a buyer for the house. I am moving and already the process is driving me out of my skull insane. The house … Continue reading →

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Original words.

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Claire_M

My head is full of thoughts that are not my own. Since I could first understand words and language people have shared thoughts with me – in conversation, on the telly and radio, and most of all through writing. These … Continue reading →

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

Posted on November 2, 2024 by Claire_M

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 … Continue reading →

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Of childbirth and curses – a trip to Norwich museum

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Claire_M

A short while back I met up with my Granny to go to ‘Roman Empire: Power and People’, a much-publicised exhibition that is stopping off at Norwich Castle Museum as part of its UK tour. The exhibition was as showy … Continue reading →

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‘Made in translation’ (or gloomily lamenting lost languages)

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Claire_M

Went last night to the excellent ‘Sappho in the City’; came home to a pile of catch-up editing for Wikipedia.* In an odd coincidence, translation was at the heart of both these activities. (Even if Josephine Balmer’s translation of Sappho … Continue reading →

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In your own words, please…

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Claire_M

Today I shall do as I am paid and write words for other people to claim that they said. Even though we allegedly take great care, marking words off carefully with speech marks to denote what, exactly, someone actually said, … Continue reading →

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A heartbreaking dot of staggering genius

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Claire_M

I was trying to concentrate on an MA assignment I’ve to write on Greek tragedy and a quatrain started woodpeckering round my brain in that way, procrastination, deadline, or no, you just have to go google it. The lines were: … Continue reading →

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