Customer Reviews

Farewell Britannia: A Family Saga of Roman Britain

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In "Farewell Britania," Simon Young explores the rise and fall of Roman Britain through a series of short stories, told in 430 AD by one of the last survivors of a noble Roman family. Each story is based to one degree or another on known events, real persons, or archaeological discoveries, and at the end of each chapter Young carefully explains where his tale is based in fact and where he takes poetic license. Many of the tales are gripping or poignant or both, and Young does a fine job of making the reader feel, just a little, what it might have been like to live through these turbulent times. The notes at the end of the book, about reading and writing Roman Britain, are worth a look for their own sake.

"Farewell Britannia" is something of a prequel to Young's 2005 book A.D. 500: A Journey Through the Dark Isles of Britain and Ireland, which recounts the adventures of an embassy dispatched to Britain in the early 6th Century by the Byzantine Emperor. "A.D. 500" struck me as more of an adventure story than "Farewell Britannia,", although it too is well grounded in known events, customs, and archaeology; "Farewell Britannia," given its parallel them of the declining fortunes of a family and a country, is more moving. Both books are well worth reading and savoring.