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Apologies for being off the air for so long. I’ve had my head down, doing my best to get stuck into Spartacus. I’ve had patches of success and failure, but am at last getting up some steam.

Last weekend, I attended the Roman Army Talk (RAT) conference in York. It was organised by John Conyard and Amy Wallace of Comitatus, the late Roman reenactment group. With two mornings of lectures from reenactors and academics, and two evenings of socialising/beerdrinking, it was an excellent chance to put faces to people from the forum on RomanArmyTalk.com. Thanks to John and Amy for all their hard work, the great speakers for the fascinating lectures, and all my fellow RATers for making the effort to come.

Mike Bishop was one of the academics who gave a talk at the conference. His topic was Hadrian’s Wall, which I’ve always held a soft spot for. As a labour of love, Mike has created a website which uses Google maps to trace the entire course of the wall, all its turrets, forts, ditches and so on. Check out the map and the associated photos at Per Lineam Valli. It’s amazing!

First of all, may I wish that all of you excellent people out there had a great Xmas, and that you’ll have a wonderful New Year for 2011. Here’s to lots more Roman discoveries, and lots more chat on the website.

Just because it’s winter, and bitterly cold, doesn’t mean that archaeologists stop working. The tomb of a Celtic noblewoman has been discovered, unplundered, in Germany. Rather than open it in situ and risk damaging the contents, particularly clothing etc., the scientists involved took the interesting step of lifting up the entire burial chamber and transporting it to a special site in a museum. Interestingly, the jewellery already found means that they can accurately date the find to about 475 BC. Read all about this fascinating find here.

To this end, well, more so we could meet up, Tony Riches organised a dinner for us Roman authors the other night. He, I, Russ Whitfield and Manda Scott met up in London for dinner and a few drinks. Unfortunately, Harry Sidebottom had to call off at the last moment due to family illness, and Doug Jackson couldn’t come either. Still, we had a great time, no blood was spilled, and we talked a lot about the new Historical Writers’ Association (HWA), the brainchild of the wonderful Manda. More of which anon…

And dang it, we forgot to give each other the gift of statues, which the Romans used to do!

arises a new title. The top chaps in Sales at Random House decided that the title Soldier of Carthage wouldn’t appeal to enough people. Sadly, I had been having the same thoughts. Not everyone knows about Carthage, whereas Rome…well, everyone knows about it. It’s a shame, but there you go.

At the heel of the hunt, we decided to go with the new title of Hannibal: Enemy of Rome, which I think is excellent. And while Hannibal is not a major character, he is central to the plot, and appears in many vital scenes. Fingers crossed that the new title does what we want it to!

For those of you in the UK who may be snowed in at home, or enduring the misery of long journeys to and from work, my commiserations. If you’re having a whale of a time, sledging with your kids, or taking some well deserved time off – enjoy! It’s shaping up to be a white Christmas if this continues. Which will be fine by me – I’d rather dry cold with/without snow than the damp, wet misery we get most winters.

Plus: many of you probably know that Eagle of the Ninth will finally be coming out in February 2011. Its release was delayed for some reason, and it’s also been renamed The Eagle. (I’m told it’s so that Americans don’t confuse it with a golfing film. No, I’m not joking.) Anyway, the trailer looks surprisingly good, and Anthony Lawton, Rosemary Sutcliff’s nephew, who runs a blod dedicated to her, reackons it’s very good. Fingers crossed! Watch the trailer here and let me know what you think.

Hoooraaayyyy! I’m absolutely delighted. Over the moon. Ecstatic. Shame it’s only 11.30 am, or I’d crack open a beer…

I’m told that the news about my new deal should be in the Bookseller tomorrow…if it is, I’ll post about it at once. Sorry to be opaque about it still…here’s a clue – it’s a standalone novel, set in the ancient world…