Claudius

The first book of the new trilogy is on track for hitting the publishers' deadline. I'd been struggling a bit with it, but this week has seen a lot of progress and I'm on the brink of the big battle scene that will be the centrepiece: a doomed last stand that I think of as Rome's Alamo. Early Roman Britain is a fascinating place, with the retiring legionary veterans putting down roots in places like Colchester and lording it over the natives, and the conquered Britons still conscious of their defeat and either co-operating/collaborating with their conquerors or covertly keeping the fire of freedom burning with the help of the druids.

This second week has made me very aware that I should have done a lot more work to prepare for my new life. I'm sitting on a leather office chair that only has one arm (teenage party casualty) and typing on the same laptop I used on the train. It's not a great combination because I've started to have niggling back pains. I should have set up a proper office, with new equipment and decorated it so that I don't have to sit and look at pale blue wallpaper with white daisies on it all day. So sometime next week I will start with a new office chair and look at buying a new computer (I'm thinking iMac). The wallpaper will have to wait a while longer.