Armchair BEA 2012: Introductions First!

For the First post in Armchair BEA 2012 we were asked to answer five questions out of a list of ten.


You can find links to all the participants' answers here.

Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you.

I taught myself Italian by using various audio, video and book-based courses.

I did this because I love all things to do with the Roman Empire, including the Eternal City of Rome itself. I have visited the city many times and after the first visit I was determined to be able to communicate in the native tongue.

Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?

At the moment, the post I am most proud of is my review of The Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey. I wrote it as a Guest Post for Bookworm Blues who has just finished her Special Needs in Strange Worlds event.

It was a great event, looking at the portrayal of disabled people in Speculative Fiction, and I was honored when Sarah asked me to contribute. This is the most detailed review that I have written because I normally try to avoid too many spoilers.

If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why?

The Emperor Claudius as presented in the wonderful books I, Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves.

As I said above, I really love the Roman Empire and have done ever since I was a teenager. One of my first encounters with fiction set within this wonderful world was this work by Robert Graves. Claudius was the most unlikely of any of the Emperors. He was the biological grandson of Mark Antony and adopted grandson of the Emperor Augustus. He was born with many physical problems, including a terrible stammer, weak legs and muscle spasms. Modern scholars believe that he had cerebral palsy. As the useless and embarrassing freak of the family he was hidden away and kept out of the public and political limelight. Despite his disabilities, or because of them if you believe Mr Graves, he outlived his uncle, the Emperor Tiberius, and his nephew, the Emperor Gaius ‘Caligula’, and became Emperor himself. In many ways he was one of the good ones. He conquered the province of Britannia and created a bureaucracy to administer the massive Empire more efficiently. His third wife murdered him so that her son could become the Emperor Nero.

I imagine that Claudius would have some amazing stories to relate, so I would love to pick his brain about his life. Also, I have experimented with Roman cookery recipes, courtesy of the writings of Apicius, so I know that the meal itself would be quite interesting as well!

What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?

Ancient Rome, but you probably could have guessed that from my answer above! However, I would like to be a little more specific and make it the Ancient Rome of Marcus Didius Falco, Lindsay Davis’ wonderfully disaster-prone Private Investigator. Ms Davis paints such a wonderful picture of the various areas of Rome that I want to experience myself, although I could probably do without the smells!

What is your favorite part about the book blogging community? Is there anything that you would like to see change in the coming years?

My most favorite part is the Read Along. I have been lucky to take part in several very rewarding events and I look forward to several more about to start over the next few weeks. If you have not yet enjoyed a read along, I recommend that you find one and join in. They are great for connecting with the other bloggers in your genre and make the process of reading a book a whole lot more enjoyable.