Peter O’Keeffe and Tom Simington, revised by Rob Goodbody Irish Academic Press, £35.00 ISBN 978-1911024149 Review Deirdre Forde This is the much anticipated revised edition of O’Keeffe and Simington’s comprehensive work covering the history of stone bridges between AD 1000 and 1830. It continues to stand out as the exemplary guide to these important features of […]

Edited by Duncan W Wright and Oliver H Creighton Archaeopress, £45.00 ISBN 978-1784914769 Review James Wright This volume is one of the outcomes of the University of Exeter’s project on the mid- 12th century Anarchy of Stephen. Essentially a collection of 12 site reports, the book is an accompaniment to a thematic synthesis of the […]

Katie Hinds Amberley Publishing, £14.99 ISBN 978-1445662343 Review Lorraine Mepham One of several books recently published celebrating the work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), this follows the popular format of using individual objects to tell a larger story. The author had more than 43,000 objects to choose from, reported over the last 18 years. […]

Edited by Astrid Van Oyen and Martin Pitts Oxbow Books, £40.00 ISBN 978-1785706769 Review Edward Biddulph Objects have long been viewed in Roman archaeology as things that represent, being regarded as expressions of status, identity, wealth or Romanisation. While the concept of Romanisation has been subject to much criticism, the idea of representation continues to […]

Edited by John Bradley, Cóilín Ó Drisceoil and Michael Potterton Four Courts, £45.00 ISBN 978-1846822186 Review Stephen Harrison This collection of ten essays is the product of a conference held to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the foundation charter of Kilkenny, Ireland. However, only two papers focus on the city and its monuments – the […]

Nick Hodgson Robert Hale, £19.99 ISBN 978-0719818158 Review Matthew Symonds Creating the Hadrian’s Wall National Trail has led to a steady rise in guidebooks catering to walkers following the former frontier, but books providing an authoritative biography of the border works remain rare. The standard undergraduate textbook – and entry point for anyone seriously interested […]

John Gribble and Graham Scott Historic England, £17.99 ISBN 978-1848023697 Review Antony Firth Most seagoing voyages are lost to time, leaving hardly a trace on the ever-moving oceans. Even the documentary records of a successful voyage will barely raise a ripple among the archives. This would also have been true of the steamship Mendi – […]

Edited by Adam Parker BAR Publishing, £30.00 ISBN 978-1407315867 Review Edward Biddulph Dr Brian Dobson, who died in 2012, was a colossus in the world of Roman frontier studies. His legacy is evident not only in his extensive bibliography of seminal works, particularly those relating to Hadrian’s Wall, but also in the work of the […]

Jill Bourne BAR Publishing, £44.00 ISBN 978-140731568 Review Duncan W Wright In 925, Æthelstan – often styled as first ruler of all England – was consecrated in a ceremony where, for the first time, the king wore a crown rather than a helmet. The unprecedented service took place at a site recorded as Cinges tun(e), […]

Aljos Farjon Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, £30.00 ISBN 978-1842466407 Review Spencer Gavin Smith This is a big book in more ways than one: a thick tome, at 400 pages, and one that addresses what is synonymous with England and the English way of life – Quercus robur, the English oak tree. Drawing together information from […]