The Coin of Carthage

Lovely. Slow to gather steam, while at the same time a fast read. I expected 'Coin of Carthage' to mean mercenaries but the coin was something else entirely. Written with unobtrusive skill, and a strange use of commas. It helps if you're soft on Hannibal.......more

I'd never come across this author before and was intrigued by the mysterious name - 'Bryher' is in fact one of the Isles of Scilly off the Cornish coast, and was adopted as a nom-de-plume by Annie Winifred Ellerman, an amazing woman by all accounts who as well as writing fifteen novels and several n......more

This book is an episodic tale of two traders who take different paths in the final years of the Second Punic War. Both are Italian Greeks and both start off trading eagerly with both sides, inasmuch as trade is possible in such wartorn times. But as the war passes they go in different directions. On......more

There were lots of germs of good books here, with the emphasis on "normal" Romans just trying to scratch out a living amid the war. But I never connected with any of them and the narrative skipped around the characters too much to allow me to focus on a person or a story.......more

I thought that this 1963 historical novel about the 2nd Punic War (between Rome and Carthage, in the 3rd Century BCE) was surprisingly good. I am not familiar with the 20th century British author Bryher, but I took a chance on her when I bought this "right-sized" novel as a Used Book sale.......more