The Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past

Product Information

This kind of energy to a piece of writing, or a ‘posher than the queen’, deliberately obtuse Brian Sewell quote, always reminds me of the infamous tale recounted in Sir Kenneth Dover’s autobiography where, when walking in the Italian hills, he was so overcome with the beauty and poeticism of the moment that he proceeded to masturbate to completion. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Whilst Christopher Hadley’s book makes no mention of this Python skit, ‘The Road’ tells us why the Python crew were correct.

Whilst a portion of Hadley’s road appears at start of each new section, a fold out version which showed the entire road in a broader situational context would have been useful. Drawing on the findings of years of work by dedicated archaeologists, aerial photographers and historians, Hadley travels the length of a spur of Ermine street in the direction of Great Chesterford pondering how and why it was built and the lives of the people who travelled or lived along it. Loving The Road , [it’s] about a Roman road but also a rumination on the past and our relationship with it. He explains how roads initially built by the Romans for military and strategic purposes became economic highways for spreading trade, especially in pottery, and ideas.

Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.

I admit that my pitch barely sounds any better but, well, I'm glad Hadley made it, his agent touted it and William Collins accepted it. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As the Britons fell back to the Thames, the road pursued them to the river’s edge, carrying troops, supplies and military despatches. Temporary campaign roads followed, rolling out west towards Rochester and the first major battle at the Medway. For two thousand years, the roads the Romans built have determined the flow of ideas and folktales, where battles were fought and where pilgrims trod.

A touchstone into one of the most fascinating periods in British and European history that still has resonance today.

For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password.We all think we know about Roman roads because they are straight, but this book shows there is far more to them than that.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

Hadley traces the path of a single Roman road in Britain and uses this trek as a tool for explaining much that is possible to know about all such roads in that country.