Boudica Britannia [Paperback]

This book takes a very different approach to dealing with the historical figure of Boudica and the rebellion she led in 60/1 AD. For this reader it was, in the end, a little disappointing - perhaps because this was a departure from the type of work Professor Aldhouse-Green has published hitherto. It is a little clumsily handled as she fails to notice sufficiently clearly how the balance of contextualising Boudica in various structures of the Graeco-Roman and Gallic worlds overshadows the emergence of a sustained focus on her principal subject. It takes half the book for us to be brought to Boudica the person and then, rather quickly, she disapperars back into that wider context - as elusive on Aldhouse-Green's pages as the warrior has often been in popular history. To deny Aldhouse-Green admiration for her scholrarship is churlish, but - as another reviewer pointed out - her lapses into references creating journalists' copy from the first decade of the 21st century and the parallels drawn to modern wars appears to be the result of poor editing by her publisher, so quickly do they become weary and easy to overlook (depite the claims from some of the blurb on the cover). This is the wrong sort of polemic.

This is not a book for anyone new to this period or the Boudican rebellion. It is not an account of Boudica's life, full of fresh or fascinating material, nor is it a compelling narrative - both misleading claims of same cover blurb. It is, however, a highly sophisticated re-positioning of Boudica into a world that we still know relatively little about - the British tribal society from which this Icenian warrior emerged to threaten the stability of Roman power in Britain, its warrior leaders, priests (rather than clegy), merchants, farmers and craftsmen. The book is much stronger on the Roman background to the key events and context of the rebellion, perhaps inevitably, but if a second edition is ever to be considered some of the threads in the text might benefit from tighter control, and the overview to which Professor Aldhouse-Green works should become more disciplined in the presentation of what her publisher intended.

This is an intelligent, well-researched, well-written and informative work by a distinguished academic archeologist. As such it makes a refreshing change from many other books on Boudica, which are often little more than disguised "New Age" romances. I warmly recommend it as an unusually comprehensive, scholarly and clear-headed introduction to the period.

In recent years Boudica has emerged from obscurity to become a focus for various mythological projections - predominantly as a feminist heroine or a Euro-sceptic fighter for British national identity.

Aldhouse-Green is a good historian, but not entirely immune to such posturing, especially towards the end of the book, when it shows signs of publisher-induced padding. Inevitably, the "thought-provoking parallels with modern times" promised on the cover have already dated badly. An adoring portrayal of Cherie Blair as the modern Boudica will leave most British readers incredulous, whilst a breathless eulogy to "another charismatic woman on the current political stage - freedom fighter and suicide bomber Reem Salah Al-Riyashi, a mother of two children who blew herself up and killed four Israelis" is simply puerile: A patent attempt to exploit the issues of the moment, seeking a parallel that - as the author admits - simply does not exist.

Such material does not make the past "accessible" - certainly not to anyone sufficiently interested to buy a serious and insightful work like Boudica Britannia. Yet these touches should not detract from the value of the book. This is overwhelmingly the work of a genuine historian in full command of her material and undoubtedly one of the best popular books on the subject.