Author:Charlotte Higgins
**NOW A HIT STAGE PRODUCTION**
Take a journey around the archaeological and cultural remains of Roman Britain with the award-winning author of Greek Myths.
This is a book about the encounter with Roman Britain: about what the idea of 'Roman Britain' has meant to those who came after Britain's 400-year stint as province of Rome - from the medieval mythographer-historian Geoffrey of Monmouth to Edward Elgar and W.H. Auden. What does Roman Britain mean to us now? How were its physical remains rediscovered and made sense of? How has it been reimagined, in story and song and verse?
Charlotte Higgins has traced these tales by setting out to discover the remains of Roman Britain for herself, sometimes on foot, sometimes in a splendid, though not particularly reliable, VW camper van. Via accounts of some of Britain's most intriguing, and often unjustly overlooked ancient monuments, Under Another Sky invites us to see the British landscape, and British history, in an entirely fresh way: as indelibly marked by how the Romans first imagined, and wrote, these strange and exotic islands, perched on the edge of the known world, into existence.
'Mesmerising... Sophisticated and passionate' Guardian
'[A] lyrical, haunting look at Roman Britain and its echo in our culture' Sunday Times
Wonderfully written and full of unexpected facts. Higgins brings Roman Britain into the present.
—— Richard SennettBeautifully crafted… The beauty of this book is not just in the elegant prose and the precision with which she skewers her myths. It is in the sympathy that she shows for the myth-makers, the men and woman who so very much wanted their very own Roman Britain.
—— Peter Stothard , The TimesMesmerising… Sophisticated and passionate. She personalizes the story in a diaristic, almost poetic tone…her prose reminds me at times of W. G. Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn…similarly haunted by a sense of a past slipping away.
—— Tim Whitmarsh , GuardianSmart and up-to-date, sensitive but hard-headed, impeccably researched but gloriously poetic. The layering of themes, moods and topics is staggering. There's nothing like quite it.
—— Tom Holland, author of 'Rubicon' and 'Persian Fire'Under Another Sky should be on every shelf in the UK. Part travelogue, part handbook and part revisionist history, it is a personal and vivid encounter with landscapes, artefacts and people… Beautifully considered and written.
—— Ruth Padel , New StatesmanA delightful, effortlessly engaging handbook to the half-lost, half-glimpsed world of Roman Britain... Under Another Sky is an utterly original history, lyrically alive to the haunting presence of the past and our strange and familiar ancestors.
—— Christopher Hart , Sunday TimesIn her gentle, fine prose, [Higgins] suggests convincingly that Britain was thoroughly changed by its two Roman invasions, and that modern Britain is still built on a Roman skeleton.
—— Harry Mount , Daily TelegraphCharming, intriguing and not-infrequently elegiac... What is most impressive here, rather than either the erudition of the endeavour, is simply the writing.
—— Stuart Kelly , ScotsmanCharlotte Higgins looks at what Roman Britain meant to those who, from medieval mythographer Geoffrey of Monmouth to W.H. Auden, subsequently thought about it.
—— David Robinson , ScotsmanLyrical, haunting look at Roman Britain and its echo in our culture.
—— Sunday TimesDelightful... There is much here to inform and amuse.
—— Richard Hobbs , Evening StandardPart travelogue, part history, part archaeology, this multi-faceted book seeks out what is familiar – and what is not… This is an enriching and eclectic book.
—— Ross Leckie , Country LifeA thoughtful and entertaining reminder that, long before the Anglo-Saxons, the Romans gave an identity to "a land as ferocious as its people".
—— Simon J V Malloch , Literary ReviewIt’s a compelling travelogue and Higgins’s passion for discovery shines out.
—— Emerald Street[She] is witty, rangy, unapologetically goofy and erudite at once.
—— Lorin Stein , Paris ReviewThis book will be of interest to those who want to see and learn more about a significant period in British history.
—— UK Regional PressHiggins wears her considerable erudition lightly and nimbly hops between her knowledge of the classics and the changing perception of the ancients by the British of the past few centuries.
—— Ben Felsenburg , MetroA very personal encounter with Roman Britain… Invites us to see our landscape and history as the Romans first imagined and wrote about them – strange and exotic islands, perched on the edge of the known world.
—— UK Regional Press[Higgins] is as sharp and sensitive an observer of the latest version of Britannia as she is of the earliest one… Each chapter is not just a regional itinerary but also a brilliantly constructed and often exhilaratingly poetic treatment of wider themes.
—— Emily Gowers , Times Literary SupplementRecords [Higgins’] own travels around the island in search of Roman traces. She includes plenty of anecdotes about the continuing fascination with the Roman past and its penetration of the present.
—— OldieHiggins produced another remarkable British travelogue… that was at once thoughtful, learned, witty and superbly written.
—— William Dalrymple , ObserverFilled with passion and personal interest… Higgins walks us around the landscape of this country as it would have been 2,000 years ago, and in doing so she ably captures the spirit of Britain now, Britain then and Britain in between.
—— Dan Jones , TelegraphWhether at Hadrian’s Wall or in a car park in the City, she [Higgins] shows how Roman traces are woven through British life.
—— Financial TimesA fascinating look at how we have viewed Rome's presence in these islands and what a debt we still owe to Roman achievements.
—— Good Book GuidePart history, part travelogue, [Higgins] also brings to life the eccentric archaeologists who have tried to recapture that lost civilisation.
—— Robbie Millen , The TimesA fresh and readable account
—— Fachtna Kelly , Sunday Business PostUnder Another Sky is not only a work of personal history, it is more personal than that... It is conversational, anecdotal, in a way that makes it easy for [Higgins] to slip in quite a lot of information
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianA delightful, effortlessly engaging handbook to the half-lost, half-glimpsed world of Roman Britain... The result is an utterly original history, lyrically alive to the haunting presence of the past and our strange and familiar ancestors
—— Christopher Hart , Sunday TimesThe beauty of this book is not just in the elegant prose and in the precision with which [Higgins] skewers her myths. It is in the sympathy she shows for the myth-makers.
—— Peter Stothard , The TimesEvocative...a keen-eyed tour of Britain.
—— Christopher Hirst , IndependentPacked with fascinating and thought-provoking insights.
—— HeraldA captivating travelogue.
—— Helena Gumley-Mason , LadyA delightfully heady and beautifully written potpourri of a book.
—— BBC History MagazineA fascinating look at the debt we owe to Roman achievements
—— Good Book GuideA fascination exploration
—— Mail on SundayHighly readable but profoundly researched, The Trigger represents a bold exception to the deluge of First World War books devoted to mud, blood and poetry
—— Ben Macintyre , The Timesa fascinating original portrait of a man and his country
—— Country and Town House