Boudica Britannia

"This is first on my list largely because, as an academic, I put things in alphabetical order. It’s a book written by an archaeologist who focuses on the Iron Age, Miranda Aldhouse-Green. I come from a different perspective because I’m interested in both the Iron Age and Roman period equally. Her book is a very good account of Boudica’s uprising, particularly focusing on how we might understand her as an Iron Age person, a member of the aristocracy of one people (or tribe), and why she came to rebel. It contains a very good summary of the archaeological materials in particular and it’s lavishly illustrated, which is always nice. So I think if you have an interest in the archaeology, this is a very good book to start off with. “Our knowledge of what the Iron Age people were like has been transformed over the last 60 years” She also discusses some of the folklore. We, as archaeologists, tend to feel that anything that doesn’t relate directly to classical texts, or to archaeological material, probably doesn’t have too much bearing on how we understand Boudica. But Miranda Aldhouse-Greene does look at some of the more fabulous stories about Boudica that have come down through the ages and I think it’s also useful for that. I certainly use this book in my own teaching on Boudica."