Just Finished Reading: The Romans Who Shaped Britain by Sam Moorhead and David Stuttard (FP: 2012) [251pp] 

It may have been true, but it was certainly a piece of significant propaganda as well as a shot at personal aggrandisement. When Julius Ceaser was fighting in Gaul he pointed at Britain as a haven for trouble makers, a haven that needed to be tamed, to be brought to heel. The only way to do that was to invade – which he did with a relatively small force in 55BC achieving little more than a ‘photo-op’. He returned with a much larger force the following year achieving his limited war aims and essentially put the locals on notice that the Roman Empire was watching and would be back. Then... Nothing. 

Only after around 100 years in AD43 under Emperor Claudius did a full invasion and occupation get underway. Resistance was, at first, significant – at least amongst some of the Britannic tribes but Rome, being Rome, dealt with any signs of opposition in their usual brutally methodical manner. In this case at least resistance was, generally, useless. With each passing year the Empire pressed north and west towards what is now Scotland and Wales. Both future countries proved far more difficult to subdue than first thought although Wales eventually fell after many years of warfare. Scotland proved a somewhat tougher nut to crack – or simply too expensive for minimal gain – and a series of walls were built to contain any possible threat. But not all was well (or peaceful) in Britannia.  

In AD60 the Roman’s pushed too far. With a heavy hand they turned a compliant ally into an implacable enemy. The Iceni queen Boudica rose in revolt to avenge her husband, her daughters and herself against an oppressive regime. This was no idle threat. Tens of thousands reached for their swords and shouted ‘Death to Rome’. The city of Colchester went down in blood and flame followed by London. The 9th Legion was ambushed on the way to intercept Boudica’s army and destroyed. Rearmed and reinvigorated who could stand against them? Returning from the Druid heartland of Anglesey the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, did just that with appalling consequences and the revolt bled out in an English field. The death toll was truly staggering with the Romans and their allies losing around 80,000 and the Celtic tribes considerably more. Although Emperor Nero considered abandoning Britain the defeat of Boudica led to Roman consolidation in the south and a confirmed presence in the rest of the country for centuries to come. 

When the Romans finally left early in the 5th century, they left a partially Romanised province largely unable to stand on its own feet. For centuries it had been a place of some value but always at a cost. It was one of the most heavily garrisoned provinces in the Empire and seemed to be a regular producer of troublesome Emperor ‘wannabies’ safely far from the centre of things. 

This was a very good overview/introduction to Roman Britain. I was aware of the rough outline of things (back in my day they taught this sort of thing in History class) so it was nice to fill in some detail. There is much, at least on the surface, to admire about the Romans but it was gratifying to see then get their assess handed to them on more than one occasion by the Brits (even though the ‘British’ didn’t actually exist at that time), the Welsh and the Scots (ditto and ditto). Naturally I was drawn particularly to Boudica (or Boadicea as I knew her growing up – yes, I’m THAT old) so there’s more to follow on that amazing woman and hero of mine for many years. Definitely worth a read and recommended to anyone wanting a firm foundation to this most interesting slice of Britain's early history. 

Happy Birthday: Walter Marvin Koenig (born September 14, 1936) is an American actor and screenwriter. He began acting professionally in the mid-1960s and quickly rose to prominence for his supporting role as Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek: The Original Series (1967–1969). He went on to reprise this role in all six original-cast Star Trek films, and later voiced President Anton Chekov in Star Trek: Picard (2023). He has also acted in several other series and films including Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971), The Questor Tapes (1974), and Babylon 5 (1993). In addition to his acting career, Koenig has made a career in writing as well and is known for working on Land of the Lost (1974), Family (1976), What Really Happened to the Class of '65? (1977) and The Powers of Matthew Star (1982).

After Chekov, Koenig had a recurring role as Psi Cop Alfred Bester (pictured above) on the television series Babylon 5. He was a "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He was slated to play Bester on the spin-off series Crusade, but the series was cancelled before his episode was filmed. The character name of "Alfred Bester" was an homage to the science-fiction writer of the same name.

Just Finished Reading: Menace of the Machine – The Rise of AI in Classic Science Fiction edited by Mike Ashley (FP: 2019) [347pp] 

I have long been interested in the interaction between man and machine as well as both real and fictional developments in robotics and Artificial Intelligence. This collection – part of the British Library Science Fiction Classics series – shows just how far back people have been thinking about such things. LONG before they came even close to reality authors have wondered and speculated just how relationships will unfold between us and our inventions – most especially when those inventions are designed specifically to either mimic us or perform tasks and activities that we had always done for ourselves. What happens when ALL useful work is undertaken by machines? What happens generations later when, for whatever reason, the machine stops or turns on us? These and other questions are speculated about between these pages. 

The early stories, as you might imagine, poke fun at machine assistants, maids, cooks and servants from an upper-class perspective such as Ely’s Automatic Housemaid (1899) by Elizabeth Bellamy although around the same time trouble was already being predicted in The Discontented Machine (1894) by Adeline Knapp. Harsher trouble still came in the form of Moxon’s Monster (1899) by Ambrose Bierce. 

Although I’d read it several times before, one of the highlights of this collection was the classic The Machine Stops (1909) by E M Forster where mankind’s complete dependence on technology is his ultimate undoing. The dangerous side of technology that continues to work is pointed out to great effect in A Logic Named Joe (1946) by Will F Jenkins ably predicting the power of unrestricted access to ‘The Internet’. 

Of course, being me, I was most captivated by stories of machine uprisings and revolts against their human overlords. A re-read of Rex (1934) by Hal Vincent was as chilling as always and I really enjoyed the last story in the set Dial F for Frankenstein (1965) by Artur C Clarke that I must have read before (probably) but had no recollection of.  

Overall, this was a most enjoyable romp through various iterations of the robot apocalypse sprinkled with warnings of our ever-growing dependence on our machine creations. Recommended to all AI geeks and acolytes of John Connor – leader of the Human Resistance.     

Happy World Dolphin Day!

Just Finished Reading: Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern (FP: 2007) [427pp] 

It was a dream he had held dear since youth – to be a modern Alexander. But to do so would demand daring, dash and that admirable quality – luck. In 1798 the still young Napoleon Bonaparte had his chance. The Directory, the cabal who ruled revolutionary France, had agreed to his idea to invade Egypt and thereby threaten England’s prized possession – India. Sailing with 335 ships and 40,000 men (the largest long-distance seaborne force the world had ever seen at that time) he managed to avoid contact with the Royal Navy – by luck as much as anything else – the French army landed near Alexandria largely unopposed. This did not last long and all too soon the casualties mounted.  

The invasion was, in many ways, a strange one. Although Egypt was of strategic importance for both the British and the French, it was nominally at least part of Ottoman territory. The complicating factor was that the Ottoman Empire was an ALLY of France! Napoleon hoped that a diplomatic shuffle could smooth the way and prevent any unfortunate repercussions. He was wrong. Although the Turks took their own time about things they did not fail to take umbrage at being attacked in such an unprovoked manner. So much so that they (at least temporarily) allied with both Britain and Russia – their long-term natural enemy – to assist them in evicting the French. This was helped a great deal by the arrival of the Royal Navy and the consequent Battle of the Nile where the French fleet was effectively destroyed in harbour by the brilliant Nelson making him a very rich man and eventually propelling him to the Lords. Now trapped and in danger of being overwhelmed by the combined forces ranged against him, Napoleon needed all of his tactical and strategic brilliance to keep Egypt under French control. This he managed but at huge cost. Seeing which way things were moving and worried about the changing strategic developments in Europe, Napoleon finally agreed to return to France to both save the Republic and secure his place in history. The rest, as they say, is History. 

I knew something of Napoleon’s adventurous foray into the Middle East from previous reading as well as some knowledge of the famous Battle of the Nile, but I had no real idea of the detail. That gap in my knowledge is certainly much narrower now! This was a quite excellent history of a Napoleonic campaign that is often overlooked and all too often forgotten about. Surprisingly, Bonaparte made a number of fundamental errors during this campaign (although he proved his military genius more than once in compensation) making unfounded assumptions – in particular regarding Turkey/Ottoman reaction to his invasion – and singularly failed to appreciate the culture of the Egyptians and how they would react to Western modern ideas crashing into and clashing with their own. It was definitely a learning experience for him as well as an insight into the man himself and the depth of his ambition (essentially boundless). Another highlight of the year and a must read for anyone interested in the Napoleonic Age. I’m already looking forward to reading his previous work on The Medici (which I already own!).  

[Highest page count of the year so far: 427pp][+16pp]

Ooooh... I LIKE that...!

Happy International Literacy Day! So, go READ something.. Or better yet - GIFT a book to someone you know!

Happy Birthday: Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last monarch of the House of Tudor.

Elizabeth was the only surviving child of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. When Elizabeth was two years old, her parents' marriage was annulled, her mother was executed, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Henry restored her to the line of succession when she was 10, via the Third Succession Act 1543. After Henry's death in 1547, Elizabeth's younger half-brother Edward VI ruled until his own death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to a Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, the Catholic Mary and the younger Elizabeth, in spite of statutes to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside within weeks of his death and Mary became queen, deposing and executing Jane. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels.

Upon her half-sister's death in 1558, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne and set out to rule by good counsel. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers led by William Cecil, whom she created Baron Burghley. One of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the supreme governor. This era, later named the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, would evolve into the Church of England. It was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir; however, despite numerous courtships, she never did. Because of this she is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". She was eventually succeeded by her first cousin twice removed, James VI of Scotland, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.

In government, Elizabeth was more moderate than her father and siblings had been. One of her mottoes was video et taceo ("I see and keep silent"). In religion, she was relatively tolerant and avoided systematic persecution. After the pope declared her illegitimate in 1570, which in theory released English Catholics from allegiance to her, several conspiracies threatened her life, all of which were defeated with the help of her ministers' secret service, run by Sir Francis Walsingham. Elizabeth was cautious in foreign affairs, manoeuvring between the major powers of France and Spain. She half-heartedly supported a number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Netherlands, France, and Ireland. By the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain.

Absolutely HILARIOUS.... 

Just Finished Reading: Shadowlands – A Journey Through Lost Britain by Matthew Green (FP: 2022) [300pp] 

Have you ever looked over an old map and seen places, villages, towns or even cities that you don’t recognise, that you haven’t even heard of before? You wonder exactly what that means. Was the early cartographer mistaken, relying on poor information or maybe making things up, like “here be dragons”? Or maybe they changed their names over time for some reason. Because places don’t just disappear into thin air, right? Well, apparently, they do – kind of. 

It’s easy to look at a modern map and imagine that places have ‘always’ been there. Many towns and cities across the world are at the very least centuries old and some go back millennia. But as places are founded and become settled, other places fail or fall into disuse for a whole host of reasons. These are the places, across Britain, that the author seeks out in this intriguing and well written narrative. Running from ancient times to the present and from the furthest north to the south coast, the author explores the remains of a city abandoned in the early Middle Ages due to shifting power structures, a port city engulfed by the sea, a village abandoned after the Great Plague, a city that literally fell off a cliff, an abandoned island too remote to sustain itself, towns bought up by the Ministry of Defence (or the War Office at the time) and used for live fire Army exercises and a village inundated by a controversial reservoir scheme. 

Although they were all interesting in their own way, I particularly found the Army ranges and the submerged Welsh village of particular interest. The Ministry of Defence owns great swathes of land across Britain and uses some of them – as in the examples within these pages – to recreate parts of Europe (prior to D-Day), parts of Eastern Europe (during the Cold War) and parts of the Middle East (to train for deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq). It must be MOST bizarre to drive around a corner in the English countryside (as the author found out) and be presented with a highly accurate facsimile of downtown Fallujah. The last example in the book of the Welsh village was honestly heart-breaking. A small farming community being essentially removed – with little real opportunity to resist – in order to supply Liverpool with water for its industries and growing population by the building of a dam and the flooding of their valley. 

Overall, this was a fascinating and often very human story of change, decline and abandonment. It shows clearly that things – cities! - thought of as permanent are nothing of the kind. Things change, populations move, decline, cliffs collapse, estuaries change direction or block up with silt, environments become unliveable. Eventually towns fade, from maps and from memories. They enter the shadowlands. Definitely a look at an overlooked part of British history. Definitely recommended. 

An early aerial shot of Stonehenge. Looks like it was still under construction......

Just Finished re-Reading: The Dispossessed by Ursula K LeGuin (FP: 1974) [319pp] 

Shevek couldn’t understand why being a revolutionary within a revolutionary society could be so difficult. He had been taught from an early age that what he was doing, what he was best for, was best for everyone. He couldn’t help being the smartest person in any room he entered. That wasn’t egoism, it was fact. Of course, that only meant that his mathematics, his physics, his theories couldn’t really be understood, be truly appreciated, by anyone else on Anarres but he couldn’t help the way his brain worked. But challenging the status quo, challenging the accepted ‘facts’, challenging so-called ‘authority’ was at the very core of their beliefs, wasn’t it? Or had things really gone that far? Where they no longer free? Would they have laws now, police, jails, censorship? Had they gone THAT far? Maybe the only thing to do was to leave. To leave the moon for the home-world Urras, the first to do so in 150 years since the original Odonians  left in order to live as they wanted, as Anarcho-Syndicalists. On Urras Shevek would be able to continue his work, meet with other scientists and maybe resolve more than his equations. Once resolved he was convinced that they would change everything. They would end human isolation and maybe, just maybe, do the same for Anarres. Maybe, by leaving, he could save his home-world too... 

I think this is the 4th time I’ve read this book, although the last time was over 20 years ago. The first time I read it I was honestly blown away by it. The political philosophy of the Odonians (named after their founder) REALLY appealed to the teenage me and helped to shape my personal politics going forward. Along with 1984 I can certainly credit LeGuin’s book as a foundational text to who I am today. So, what did I think re-reading it after such a long gap? I was actually pleased that I found it both easy to read and that my memory of the quality of the writing had stood the test of time. I found that I remembered a few specifics – calling a hand THE hand rather than YOUR hand (as in ‘the hand hurts’ rather than ‘my hand hurts’ which is considered to be propertarian) and, rather weirdly, the scene where Shevek is introduced to a child's pet otter... The rest of the book seemed new and fresh. I was surprised, having forgotten, that the Anarchist society on Anarres was starting to ‘fail’ and had started to show creeping authoritarianism. I found the critique of that shift really interesting. I also very much liked the way the world of Urras – a planet very much like ours in many ways – came under scrutiny.  

As you might imagine this was a VERY political novel essentially contrasting a (mostly) functioning Anarcho-Syndicalist society with a Capitalist one (the country of A-Io on Urras). The genius of the work is that the political side of things is the water the characters swim in rather than constantly front and centre in the narrative. This is, above all else, a character driven story. It is centred, as you might expect, on Shevek himself (who IMO is a GREAT character) but his partner Takver gets a great deal of page-time too and I liked her almost as much. They made a great couple and I loved spending time with them. For those put off by the idea that this is science-fiction I can only say that, although it has SF elements (alien planets, it's in the reasonably far future, the core idea is scientific dealing with faster-than-light communication, and there’s a few spaceship rides) if ALL of these elements were taking away it’d still be a cracking story about choice, freedom and personal belief. So, after my 4th (at least) reading I’d still rank this as one of my Top 20 SF novels and is, therefore, highly recommended. 

As it's now September and the kids go back to school shortly... I'm dedicating the month here @ SaLT to Teachers, Education and Learning.... So, let's go LEARN stuff...!!