The Roads To Rome

Reviews / Votes

Epic and witty ... Fletcher is a thoroughly enjoyable narrator because she peppers her learned prose with wry humour, first-person asides and comparisons between past and present ... The Roads to Rome is a nuanced and perceptive book that interrogates "the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are" -- Tobias Jones * Observer * Roman roads run everywhere, and Fletcher has been on most of them ... It has been her labour of love to crisscross an entire continent ... Fletcher's book is an exemplar of history as travelogue. It presents a familiar panorama - of Europe since antiquity - but from an unfamiliar, even original perspective ... The roads themselves are Fletcher's stars: sources of prosperity but also danger, stages on which to compete for and assert status, vectors of destiny that take men from where they cannot stay to where they must go ... The camaraderie she generates with fellow travellers, dead as well as living, engages and inspires. -- Miles Pattenden * Literary Review * Elegantly plotted ... It is no easy task to condense 25 centuries of history into 300 pages and Fletcher, whose area of expertise is Renaissance Europe, rises to the challenge ... For modern Grand Tourists, Fletcher's book will provide an enjoyable distraction when the journey to Rome gets dull -- Patrick Kidd * The Times * Fletcher has a knack for identifying the poignant and the picaresque, which keeps the book unpredictable and entertaining. Ms. Fletcher is a charming writer. There are plenty of memorable scenes and evocative images. -- Kyle Harper * Wall Street Journal * Very readable ... these routes are almost a natural part of the landscape. The reader departs the book with a feeling that they have been there for an unimaginable time, travelled on by a cast of vivid characters. It is a compelling image, in an enjoyable book. -- Robert Wright * Financial Times * [A] rich narrative of the long afterlife of Rome's roads -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman * [A] terrifically researched, sweeping study into the idea (or conception) of the Roman road * Unseen Histories * With verve and expertise, Catherine Fletcher has tramped the far-flung Roman roads of Europe and created a delightful, novel and authoritative history from the ground up. -- Judith Herrin * author of BYZANTIUM * Past and present cleverly entwine in Catherine Fletcher's erudite, entertaining and infinitely readable journey along the roads that stitch Europe's history together. -- Helena Attlee * author of THE LAND WHERE LEMONS GROW * This is history quite literally following in the footsteps of the past: covering and uncovering the ways in which the Roman road network has become part of the DNA of every society since. It's a magical and informative ode to the majesty and mystical power of the humble roadway. -- Michael Scott * Professor of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick *