Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain

How we endured lost and found the Romans in Britain

Mary Beard's fabulous book on Pompeii: just as good though the subject matter is less well known and the archaeology is far less complete.

No, but I will look out for her.

Richly textured, colourful, poignant stories about the people and the landscape, and the archaeologists who revealed them to us.

I know the Lake District pretty well, but mainly from the perspective of a walker or through the eyes of artists like Wordsworth or Ruskin, but I've never really appreciated the Roman dimension to the area. I shall be taking a paperback edition with me when I visit soon, plus another author whom Charlotte Higgins recommends.

I listened to the book while hiking Hadrian's Wall in the hopes that it would help bring some of Roman Britain to life for me as I walked. It did just that. I wasn't sure what to expect and was pleased to find that Charlotte Higgins' approach was to take the reader on her own journey around Britain as she explored it's Roman history. Rather than a scholarly writing of facts and dates, she unfolded the Roman timeline through visits to specific sites and the sharing of interesting stories, theories and anecdotes. It was a great way to explore the topic of Roman Britain as an amateur, interested in the broad story rather then focusing too heavily on an academic study of history.

Yes. A book on Roman Britain could be a bit dry but this isn't. Charlotte Higgins takes us on a tour, area by area, looking at the remaining traces of the Romans. She tells us who they were and how they lived but also how subsequent generations have been influenced by them. Interspersed are tales of the archaeologists and historians who study the Romans in the past and they were an eccentric bunch.

Hard to pick out one but perhaps the stories of Roman towns that have disappeared completely. They are quite poignant.

The camper van Charlotte and her boyfriend travelled round in. Or didn't, when it kept breaking down.

I listened to this book while completing the Hadrian's Wall Walk. The Romans were brought to life by it. To be walking where they were stationed, guarding the border, and hearing snippets of their letters was amazing.

It's made me want to find out more about an area of history I had little interest in before.

Charlotte Higgins has written a book which is part history, part historiography, part travelogue, part personal memoir, and on the face of it that shouldn't work nearly as well as it should. But she conjures up the scenes and the experience of visiting these places so vividly that I found myself listening to this more than once, just for the pleasure of the experience. Hearing her impressions of the places I've not seen made me hungry to go there, while the stories of those I have been to made we want to visit them again.<br/><br/>All complemented very well by Julia Franklin's excellent voice work.