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Echolands: A Journey in Search of Boudica

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While we do spend a lot of time in East Anglia, we also journey from the banks of the Thames in London to Anglesey and Lincolnshire.

Duncan Mackay | United Agents Duncan Mackay | United Agents

The armies marched along the roads we still use, and died in their thousands in towns, cities and countryside where we still live today. But part of the durability of the Boudica tradition lies in its potential for reimagining and reinterpretation for reasons other than the weight of evidence.He lives in Norfolk with his wife, son and soppy Black Labrador, indulging his passion for walking marshes and deserted beaches, and hurling himself into freezing rivers at dawn.

Echolands by Duncan Mackay | Hachette UK Echolands by Duncan Mackay | Hachette UK

Similarly, the Temple of Claudius, built at some point between ad 49 and 60, and later incorporated by the Normans into Colchester Castle. Despite ostensibly being ‘her book’, there are few new insights about Boudica herself, or about ancient Britain, or about Boudica’s cultural afterlife. With such visions in mind, the conflagration that consumed the temple burns all the more brightly down the ages. The site of Boudica’s last battle was long believed be lost to time, but the threads of the story all pull towards one remarkable, forgotten little corner of the English landscape.The site of Boudica's last battle was long believed be lost to time, but the threads of the story all pull towards one remarkable, forgotten little corner of the English landscape. Rather than the outdoorsy travelogue one might expect, much of the action (so to speak) takes place in museums. Mackay’s knowledge is profound, but lightly worn, his writing elegant and witty, and his enthusiasm infectious. The places that Mackay visits, traverses and dwells in are vividly described as a conscious attempt to revive the past… there are real moments of joy and insight.

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According to the biographical blurb, Mackay lives in Norfolk, so there is an element of proximity and convenience that is rather too obvious.

Mackay’s scholarship is laced with a vividness of imagination that gives this theatre of war such a powerful voice that it catapults the reader into the past as though it were yesterday. I am still a little confused about the book’s point, but I have learned quite a lot about Duncan Mackay.

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