BOOK LAUNCH EVENT: The Roads to Rome by Catherine Fletcher

This is just a short message to let you all know about something I am involved in that is coming up next month.

Blackwell’s bookshop in Manchester (UK) are hosting the launch of Catherine Fletcher’s new, epic history of the Roman road network which covers 2,000 years of European history -The Roads to Rome: A History.

The event will be held on June 13th from 6.30pm-8pm, and will feature Catherine in conversation with none other than me! I am particularly excited about this one because Catherine has been such a large influence in my own writing career.

If you want to come along, here is the link to book your ticket: click here.

Here is the blurb for the event and the book:

Brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of European history through one of the most important imperial networks ever built. Catherine will be in conversation with Dr. Owen Rees.

About the book:

'All roads lead to Rome.' It's a medieval proverb, but it's also true: today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empire, as Rome’s extraordinary legacy continues to grip our imaginations.

Over the two thousand years since they were first built, the roads have been walked by crusaders and pilgrims, liberators and dictators, but also by tourists and writers, refugees and artists. As channels of trade and travel, and routes for conquest and creativity, Catherine Fletcher shows how the roads forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond.

Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is ‘a history in every stone that strews the ground.’ Based on outstanding original research, and brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of history through one of the greatest imperial networks ever built.

And if you don’t know Catherine’s work yet, you are in for a treat:

About the author:

Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe and the author of several previous books, including most recently The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance, which was a Book of the Year (2020) in The Times. Catherine is Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University and broadcasts regularly for the BBC.