Thriller writer, archaeologist and traveller
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. A Centurion makes the Prize Draw with Roma Nova... Continue Reading →
My report on the excavation of Roman buildings on Longis Common is published in the latest edition of the Alderney Society Bulletin. Due to the passage of time I have been able to combine the tentative results of the fortuitous discoveries of 2017, the dig where I was assisted by school students in 2018 and... Continue Reading →
I’ve been quiet on the blogging front, chiefly because I spent August digging in Alderney. Running a dig is full-on, 7 days a week but I found time to sit back see the moon rise over Longis Bay, to watch the stars come out over Saye and enjoy plenty of Alderney hospitality. We'd swim at... Continue Reading →
Some of you will have seen shots of my time spent on the island of Alderney during July. It was probably the tenth time I’d been there to lead an excavation at the Nunnery, but time shifts and this year brought new experiences and new surprises. The Nunnery itself has been reconfigured as a Field... Continue Reading →
I felt as if I was in a scene from a Jeffrey Flint novel. An email came in saying a skull had been found in the island of Alderney, then a phone call from the police concerned they had a crime scene. It had turned up in a trench being dug for an electric main... Continue Reading →
Yes its excavating season. Time to bring out the digging t-shirts, cowboy hat and trusty 4.5" pointing trowel. This August we returned to the Nunnery in Alderney, where our team last dug in 2013. This is Britain's best preserved Roman small fort, continuing in use as medieval castle, Napoleonic barracks, German strongpoint, farm, hospital and holiday... Continue Reading →
It was a divers' joke. The object they found was a blue-grey colour, heavy, metallic. It was the size of a man's oustretched palm, with a circular central hole and three vanes each with a screw hole. Three further supporting lugs added strength. They called it the Fiat Gearbox, or the Messerschmitt gearbox, thinking this... Continue Reading →