The Eboracum Festival is an annual event held in York, and features an author tent replete with authors of Roman themed novels and textbooks. Our encampment was pitched in front of the Multangular Tower that marks the NW corner of the defences of the Roman fortress.
I somehow managed not to take a photograph of Simon Turney ‘SJA’ , prolific author of the Marius’ Mules series and many others. Possibly as he was so busy selling books! Also missed was my CWA colleague and almunus of the Alderney Excavations Ruth Downie who writes the Medicus series of Roman mysteries. Nancy Jardine sat along the wing with myself and Jacquie Rogers, chatting books and Romans when visitors drifted to other distractions in the park.
I was invited partly due to my long-standing connection with Roman York, and took along a couple of my textbooks as discussion points. It wasn’t the day for Blackshirts, but with my crime writer ‘hat’ on I was also pleased with continued interest in Jeffrey Flint’s archaeological adventures. Both Shadesmoor and Blood and Sandals were heavily influenced by my time working in the city in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This was my first outdoor writer event since the pandemic and I Iearned a thing or two from my colleagues on the day. One rewarding aspect was chance encounters with former colleagues and people who knew former colleagues of decades past I was pleased to learn are still alive; the archaeology of archaeology.
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