The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Simon Elliott is a busy man. When he's not appearing in documentaries, working as an archaeologist and lecturing in Pompeii, he is a prolific writer of ancient Roman history, most recently with an account of the IX Hispania (Roman Britain's Missing Legion). He's now...
Simon Elliott, the epic clashes of the Trojan War described by Homer are our only real literary reference to the Mycenaean period of warfare – how would you best describe this version of Greek war? In one word, confusing! Here we first have to overcome the uncertainty...
There is a possibly apocryphal story about the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. It goes like this. Someone congratulated Rowan Atkinson about his portrayal of Mr Bean bumbling about amidst the antics of the parachuting Queen and the visitation of James...
I grew up with a passion for the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome, and fondly remember drawing my first Roman chariot with wax crayons on old computer print out paper aged about five! That love of all things ancient translated into something of an obsession as an...
Friends! Brothers and sisters! Comrades! Fellow citizens! Your majesties and highnesses! My countrymen! My children! Fellow soldiers! Ladies and gentlemen! You can tell much by the opening of a speech. Elizabeth I begins hers majestically, ‘My loving people’. Mandela...
Voices of History: Speeches that Changed the World As we have discovered in January 2020, words matter. They matter even more when spoken by powerful men and women. I write this in the context of the dying days of Donald Trump’s presidency, when his words have incited...
Gordon Corrigan, what first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? Inspirational history tutors both at school and at Sandhurst gave me a lifelong fascination with history, and my service in the army sharpened the focus to specialise in military history....
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryPaul BernardiTaking a well-earned break from the adventures of Beobrand in his much-loved Bernicia Chronicles series, Matthew Harffy moves forward the best part of one hundred and fifty years in this, his most recent and...
When starting any historical fiction, I always wonder where it stacks up when compared with Sharpe, Patrick O’Brian, Hornblower and Flashman. It's fortunate, therefore, with Protector by Conn Iggulden, that one is in the hands of a master storyteller. Set in ancient...
The Wolfson History Prize 2021 Rebecca Clifford Rebecca, congratulations on your nomination for the Wolfson History Prize of 2021 from Aspects of History. Why did you choose your particular subject? This is a two-pronged answer. Most important prong, I’ve worked with...
