First, the good news. The lovely shiny new Historical Writers Association website is now up and running, with a forum for readers and writers to meet, discuss, question, argue, or just lurk quietly. The HWA will be running a  Festival of Historical Literature  during English Heritage’s  Festival of History in July – of which more later, no doubt.

Meanwhile, one place I’ve personally done a lot of quiet lurking (in the interests of research, you understand) is the Roman gallery in the Museum of London. So it’s deeply saddening to hear about the serious job losses looming there, especially amongst the curators.  Er – aren’t curators, the experts who actually know about things, the very people a museum should be holding onto at all costs?