What are you reading now?

[french frank]

500 AD by Simon Young. You need to have an interest in Dark Age Britain for this one , but it's promising to be an intriguing read. The author has specialised in Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Norse and he's constructed a fictional 'journey' through the Britain of 500 AD which is based factually on existing records. An embassy of Byzantine Greeks sets out to discover what the islands are like, given that the Byzantine Empire, as successor to the now defeated Roman Empire, has a right to claim those territories conquered by the Romans. Will armies have to be sent to recapture the territories from the assorted barbarians who live there?

The narrative is based on the known state of knowledge of Britain, the geography and the peoples, as recorded by Ptolemy and other travellers and traders who visited Britain and Ireland in earlier times, and is seen through the eyes of the Greeks. There are genuine footnotes to indicate the source material.

The Independent reviewer wrote: "What a joy to be able to recommend a book about misery, bloodshed and grisly superstition for being funny … ". I look forward to it being entertaining and informative.

[Richard Tarleton]

Sounds fascinating. I had a quick look in The Anglo-Saxons by James Campbell et al to see if there was any mention of this, not remembering any such thing. He tells us that Gildas and Procopius are the only major sixth-century sources for the history of Britain. He gives what seems to be a slightly different slant: 'the population of Britain', says Procopius, 'is so great that every year people migrate from the island, and are allowed to settle in Gaul by the Franks, who thus intend to win authority over Britain. Not long ago (says Procopius) the king of the Franks had sent an embassy to Justinian (527-65) in which Angles were included to support a claim [by the Franks] to overlordship in the island' [which seems to support the idea that it was Justinian's to give]. Elsewhere he says that Justinian was so extravagant in giving subsidies to barbarians that he gave them as far away as Britain. A late life of a Breton saint says that Childebert l, who ruled in Paris from 511 to 558, also had power in Britannia transmarina.

I was lucky that my undergraduate studies coincided with two great scholars of the Anglo-Saxons, James Campbell (above) and Henry Mayr-Harting, inspirational lecturers both. It needs a dash of imagination to bring it all alive - I may well give this a try, thank you!

[french frank]

I may well give this a try, thank you!

First published in 2005. Procopius was the one who mentioned gifts being taken to the kings of Britain, so the narrative is the travelogue of one such embassy visiting Britain. The background, of course, is that as the 'barbarians' have swept westwards and even taken Rome itself, so in Britain the Angles and Saxons are also invading.

The larger of the two islands is roughly the shape of an isosceles triangle, the southern coast being the short side and Ireland stretches almost down to Spain.

The author's explanation for choosing to write a fictional account is interesting: precise knowledge of the period is patchy and there is no complete study of it, so he invents the travelogue as a means of presenting the reader with the known facts about the various regions. I did not know that Tintagel was one of the chief trading ports of the time .

[Richard Tarleton]

Of course, we're kind of on your turf here aren't we FF?

[french frank]

Of course, we're kind of on your turf here aren't we FF?

Only in an amateur way as far as the history goes (I don't know a great deal about early Britain) but I have a blog about early history in the west country - which is my turf - and which is a very good way of focusing on small obscure historical points and pursuing them tirelessly, nay fruitlessly. I have one follower who reads it with some regularity

[vinteuil]

I have a blog about early history in the west country - which is my turf - and which is a very good way of focusing on small obscure historical points and pursuing them tirelessly, nay fruitlessly. I have one follower who reads it with some regularity

I am reminded of the last sentence of Borges's 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius' -

"I pay no attention to all this and go on revising, in the still days at the Adrogué hotel, an uncertain Quevedian translation (which I do not intend to publish) of Browne's 'Urne-Buriall'."

[french frank]

"I pay no attention to all this and go on revising, in the still days at the Adrogué hotel, an uncertain Quevedian translation (which I do not intend to publish) of Browne's 'Urne-Buriall'."

Or even, among the visible work of Pierre Ménard, author of the Quixote:

"A technical article on the possibility of improving the game of chess, eliminating one of the rook's pawns. Menard proposes, recommends, discusses and finally rejects this innovation."

In fact, that isn't so far …

[Richard Tarleton]

I am reminded of the last sentence of Borges's 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius' -

"I pay no attention to all this and go on revising, in the still days at the Adrogué hotel, an uncertain Quevedian translation (which I do not intend to publish) of Browne's 'Urne-Buriall'."

Ah yes ...una indecisa traducción quevediana (que no pienso dar a la imprenta) del Urn Burial de Browne....ff told an anecdote involving Borges and holiday reading a while back, I'm one of the Philistines here I'm afraid ...

[french frank]

ff told an anecdote involving Borges and holiday reading a while back, I'm one of the Philistines here I'm afraid ...

Oh, yes. That'll be the friend I was on holiday with. She asked me one evening if I'd brought any book that she could borrow overnight. I lent her a volume of Borges (can't remember which one) and next morning she handed it back with a: 'Thank you - not really my thing'.

I find the absurdist humour absolutely irresistible

[usher]

First published in 2005. Procopius was the one who mentioned gifts being taken to the kings of Britain, so the narrative is the travelogue of one such embassy visiting Britain. The background, of course, is that as the 'barbarians' have swept westwards and even taken Rome itself, so in Britain the Angles and Saxons are also invading.

The larger of the two islands is roughly the shape of an isosceles triangle, the southern coast being the short side and Ireland stretches almost down to Spain.

The author's explanation for choosing to write a fictional account is interesting: precise knowledge of the period is patchy and there is no complete study of it, so he invents the travelogue as a means of presenting the reader with the known facts about the various regions. I did not know that Tintagel was one of the chief trading ports of the time .

I have just finished reading this book and enjoyed the approach the author took. It was recommended by a fellow-wargamer whose army of Scotti regularly beats up my Picts.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It was recommended by a fellow-wargamer whose army of Scotti regularly beats up my Picts.

Ah - so historically authentic, then?

[usher]

Ah - so historically authentic, then?

Sadly, yes......

[usher]

I have just re-read Muriel Spark's "Memento Mori" for an online book group to which I belong. I read it in a day, quite captivated by the pace of the narrative, delighted by the dialogue, and appalled by almost all of the characters. I was very impressed, and chilled, by her treatment of old age and death, two conditions which at my age and with my underlying health conditions are no longer as remote as they were when first I read it in the early 1970s.

[verismissimo]

I'm pressing on with Benjamin Taylor's recent (and shortish) Proust: The Search, in spite of the fact that, in the Prologue, Taylor talks about the Dreyfus Affair 'ramifying every which way.'

[Stanfordian]

Lotfi Mansouri ' An Operatic Journey' he lifts the lid on the operatic world, it's a fasinating read.