Garrison Life at Vindolanda: A Band of Brothers Paperback – 15 Feb. 2002

Excellent as always from Birley

It has given me a new view on my previous impressions of Roman and made everyday life so much more real.

Very interesting work. Very useful to me for my research

Really great for helping me with my Roman Britain Coursework, picture doesn't match appearance of the book, but that's only a small detail

A VERY WELL PRESENTED ACCOUNT OF THE VINDOLANDA LETTERS

The edition I purchased must have been older than this one. Mine had no colour on the cover. I found the book rather boring and so frequently found excuses for putting it aside. It tells the story of the archaeology of the site rather than the story of the garrison. I had bought it prior to visiting the site. I hope it will mean more to me after my visit. The b/w photos of the tablets could benefit from graphic interpretation to allow the lay reader to decode some of the words. The Wall by Alistair Moffatt is a much better introduction to Hadrian's Wall and the Roman occupation despite its wealth of detail.

Don't be fooled by the strap line, 'A Band of Brothers', into thinking this is anything like the style of Stephen Ambrose's excellent book 'A Band of Brothers'. It is an extremely thorough book with excellent detail of the writing tablets found in Vindolanda (plus background), organised in a logical fashion with many photos (of the tablets). However, it is not very accessible nor engaging, so I'd say it would be of more interest to academics or amateur historians. For those of us who like our history told in dramatacised story form, this probably isn't the best read.