Happy Birthday: Simon Scarrow (born 3 October 1962) is a British writer. Scarrow completed a master's degree at the University of East Anglia after working at the Inland Revenue, and then went into teaching as a lecturer, firstly at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, then at City College Norwich.

He is best known for his Eagles of the Empire series of Roman military fiction set in the territories of the Roman Empire, covering the second invasion of Britain and the subsequent prolonged campaign undertaken by the rump of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. As of 2025, there are 23 books in the series; the latest, Tyrant of Rome, was published in 2025.

He has written another series, Revolution, focussing on Wellington and Napoleon, the first title of which, Young Bloods, was published in 2006. The second volume, The Generals, was published on 31 May 2007 and the third volume, Fire and Sword, in January 2009. The fourth and final novel of the series was published in June 2010 and is called The Fields of Death. He began publishing a new series in 2011, entitled Gladiator.

In 2021, Scarrow authored an audiovisual walking tour for the Roman Colosseum entitled Blood and Sand on the BARDEUM mobile app.

Just finished re-Reading: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (FP: 1974) [236pp] 

In the late 1990's mankind is at war. A decade before a way of crossing vast distances had been discovered – collapsars that allowed ships dropped into them to emerge lightyears away apparently instantaneously. The whole Galaxy was open for exploration and exploitation. With an increasing fleet out exploring a troubling fact could no longer be ignored – not all of the survey or colony vessels came back or reached their targets. The military insisted on arming the ships just in time to meet the aliens. It was war! Private William Mandella has been conscripted into a new UN force to fight back. Highly educated, young and physically fit he is part of a small elite force tasked with securing the jump points to allow the fleet to find, contain and eventually destroy the alien menace. But... there's ALWAYS a but... there's a few problems to overcome. First no one has any idea what the aliens look like or what they want. Second there's the small issue of time dilation. Each mission might last a few weeks or even a few months but because of the distances involved and the time spent near light-speed time passes very differently on Earth. A mission could take a decade or two relative to the home base or, in the worst case, centuries. How do you cope with the fact that everyone you knew could be dead when you're back from deployment and everyone living speaks a different language and has no idea there's a war on? 

I read this not long after it came out – so around 50 years ago. I was impressed by how it still stood up to a read. The author certainly used his experience as a Vietnam vet to good effect. The military side of things was very well done – especially the first mission where they couldn't distinguish between the local wildlife and the aliens they were supposed to be fighting! The rest hasn't aged quite so well. The speed of change – both technological and social – was WILDLY optimistic and I did chuckle more than once at the idea of interstellar travel in the early 21st century. Equally amusing was the idea that around 25% of the global population would be homosexual by mid-century to cut down on population problems!  

This is still worth a read though. Its famous and much talked about for a reason. The use of the physics of time dilation to isolate the war fighters from the general population is a great idea and I know it wowed me back in my teens. I had forgotten just how much sex the story contained though – although almost all non-explicit and almost all 'off page'. But it WAS written in the early 70's so... Worth a read especially if you're relatively new to SF or want to hit the classics. More iconic SF to come.  

Welcome to October, we made it! As Halloween will be approaching faster than appreciated (as always) SaLT will, as usual, be dedicated to all things Monster & Horror related this month. ONE good thing about the present Timeline is that there's plenty of material to choose from....

I was listening to a radio prog (yes, I'm old...) and they were talking about what music people would bring to a desert island (I think it was Classic FM). Finally they asked what 'special item' people would take with them. One guy said he'd bring a satellite phone - presumably to use after a few weeks/months when he was super chill but fancied a pizza.......

Just Finished Reading: Trial By Battle by David Piper (FP: 1959) [160pp] 

India, October 1941. 21-year-old Cadet officer Alan Mart is learning the ropes of command. Assigned under overbearing acting captain Sam Hall he can't seem to do anything right or satisfy a man who oscillates between being drunk, cynical or just plain self-destructive. Offered a cushy job teaching German to a bunch of commando-types he surprises himself by turning it down in favour of continuing to be abused by Hall. With the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese attacks across the Far East, Mart finds himself leading a section of Indian soldiers in the jungles of Malaysia (with trucks painted in desert camouflage for their original assignment in the Middle East) against the Japanese onslaught. Initially unsure if he could be responsible for the death of another person – friendly or enemy – he quickly finds himself adapting to confusion, lack of sleep and random death. But that was before the full force of the Japanese advance falls on his section of the frontline. From then on there is only one reality – withdrawal, confusion and loss. 

I've been meaning to continue working through my small stack of Imperial War Museum Classics for a while now. I'm reading them (mostly) in narrative chronological order which makes sense to me. I've said before that my knowledge (and to be honest interest) in the Far East campaign is... limited. For some reason I'm for more focused on the conflict in Europe, Russia and North Africa that in the jungles of East Asia. So, it was 'nice (in an interesting way) to see things at ground level from the view of a young British officer thrown in at the deep end. I think that the biggest thing that struck me was that, despite being two years into the war, the British in India seemed both very laid back and VERY ill-prepared for any kind of attack. I suppose that they thought themselves well out of a European war (with the possibility of being assigned to North Africa still in mind) rather than anywhere closer – despite the fact that Japan and Germany where ALLIES! Which meant that, much like in England in 1939, soldiers and their equipment had to be hastily thrown together using whatever man and material came to hand. It was definitely a "learning on the job" mentality – which is often OK, expect where a single mistake (or just a spot of bad luck) could get you (and your men) killed. 

I did find the first half of the book (in India) rather slow and plodding but this may have been deliberate to emphasise the slow process of the British getting their act together. Once the action (or should I say chaos) moves to the jungle the pace certainly increases and the whole thing becomes more entertaining. Told very much from Alan Mart's PoV (and based on the authors wartime experiences) this was at times a visceral read that managed to get under my skin more than once. Looking forward I think I'll give that side of the war more attention in future. I think it deserves it. Reasonable.