The Course of Honour, by Lindsey Davis. Book review

Arrow, 1998. ISBN 978-0-099-22742-7. 341 pages.

Set mainly in Rome in AD 31-69, The Course of Honour tells the remarkable story of the lifelong love affair between Titus Flavius Vespasian (later Emperor Vespasian) and the slave and later freedwoman Antonia Caenis. Both main characters are historical figures, and their relationship is (briefly) documented in historical sources.

Caenis is a slave owned by Antonia, an important Roman noblewoman (daughter of Mark Antony and niece of Emperor Augustus). Trained in the imperial school, Caenis is a scribe and routine copyist, until Antonia needs someone to write a highly confidential and dangerous letter in a hurry and Caenis is the only scribe available. This incident sets Caenis on her path to becoming Antonia’s trusted secretary, and later a career in the Imperial administration. Titus Flavius Vespasianus is the younger son of an undistinguished noble family from a rural backwater, without much in the way of money or political influence. Both will have to make their own lives as best they can within the constraints of Roman society, Vespasian by following the cursus honorum (the ‘course of honour’) of successive military and political offices, Caenis in the Imperial bureaucracy. As their love for each other grows, both know that marriage is impossible – Roman law forbids anyone of senatorial rank from marrying a slave or ex-slave – and both know that Vespasian will have to make a suitable political marriage to someone else. Through separation and heartbreak, not to mention the perils of life under a succession of mad Emperors, the love between Caenis and Vespasian holds true – until chaos and civil war bring Vespasian within reach of the ultimate prize...

The lifelong love between Vespasian and Caenis is real, and is briefly mentioned in Roman chronicles (e.g. Suetonius) but, as usual, details are scarce. In The Course of Honour, Lindsey Davis has imagined the character of Caenis and the relationship between Caenis and Vespasian over the course of their lives. Caenis’ position in the Imperial service places her close to the heart of the political turmoil of the early Empire, and readers of I, Claudius by Robert Graves will recognise many of the events. Details of life in classical Rome are vividly portrayed, from the Imperial palace staff to renting a shabby apartment in a jerry-built tenement.

Most of the story is told from Caenis’ perspective. She is a wonderful central character, excellent company for the book’s 341 pages. Fiercely intelligent, cynical (although not quite as cynical as her racy friend Veronica), honest and realistic, the experience of life as a slave has taught her that life is unreliable and good fortune liable to be fleeting. When Vespasian has to marry for political reasons, Caenis ends their relationship and builds her own life without him, surviving the erratic Emperor Caligula and then using her contacts with the freedman Narcissus to get herself an appointment to the administration under Emperor Claudius – not forgetting to persuade Narcissus of the merits of appointing Vespasian to a senior military command for the invasion of Britain. Caenis is resolved as far as possible to rely on no-one but herself, and determined not to be dependent on anybody, not even Vespasian. Throughout the ups and downs of her life she sticks to her principles. Despite the disparity in their social status, the relationship between Caenis and Vespasian is one of equals, with respect and (sometimes painful) honesty on both sides, as well as love.

Caenis’ life story is particularly appealing because, in a society where women were expected to be invisible and valued only for political alliances and as producers of children, Caenis is a single woman without children, making her way as best she can. It’s interesting to see the familiar politics of the early Empire from the perspective of someone close to but not directly involved in events. Caenis and her friend Veronica take a wry view of the unedifying antics of the Imperial family, sometimes cynically amusing, as when Caenis remarks of Claudius’ treacherous empress Messalina that Roman men are always divorcing their wives and at least Messalina had returned the compliment, and sometimes heartbreaking, as when Caenis reflects of Claudius’ children that in their family tradition they will either have to become monsters or life will deal monstrously with them.

The writing style has the same fluency and immediacy as Lindsey Davis’ Falco novels (e.g. The Silver Pigs, reviewed here earlier) but with a more serious tone and less modern slang. I think The Course of Honour is my favourite of Lindsey Davis’ Roman novels.

A brief Author’s Note at the back outlines some of the underlying history, and a detailed map at the front shows the layout of first-century Rome and is useful for getting one’s bearings.

Remarkable story of the lifelong love between Emperor Vespasian and the freedwoman Antonia Caenis, against the background of the chaotic politics of the first-century Roman Empire.

May recipe: Smoked salmon pate

Smoked salmon pate

This wonderfully quick and easy recipe is perfect as a sandwich filler or as part of a spring/summer picnic.

You can vary the herbs as you like, so if you can’t get chives or don’t like chives, you can substitute another fresh green herb of your choice.

Smoked salmon pate

4 oz (approx 100 g) smoked salmon

4 oz (approx 100 g) cream cheese

1-2 Tablespoons (1-2 x 15 ml spoons) single cream

Salt and pepper

2 Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) chopped fresh chives

Roughly chop the smoked salmon.

Mix the chopped salmon, cream cheese and 1 Tablespoon of single cream in a blender or food processor, and process to the desired texture.  I like this pate fairly coarse, with distinct pieces of smoked salmon, but if you prefer it completely smooth, just blend it for longer.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a blender, chop the smoked salmon finely with a sharp knife and then beat the chopped salmon into the cream cheese and 1 Tablespoon of single cream with a wooden spoon.

Add a little more single cream if the pate is too stiff (different varieties of cream cheese seem to vary in texture).

Season with salt and black pepper to taste, and stir in the chopped chives.

Pack the pate into a pot or serving dish and refrigerate for an hour or two.

Serve on bread, toast, oatcakes etc.

This pate will keep for a week or so in the fridge.  It does not freeze.

The Last Runaway, by Tracy Chevalier. Book review

Harper Collins 2013. ISBN 978-0-00-735034-6

The Last Runaway is set in Ohio in 1850. All the main characters are fictional.

Shy Quaker girl Honor Bright sails from her home in England to America, accompanying her sister who is going to join her husband-to-be. Honor herself is fleeing from having been jilted, hoping to start a new life in America. When her sister dies only a few days before reaching their destination, Faithwell in Ohio, Honor is left alone among strangers in a strange land. She finds an unexpected friend in the forthright milliner, Belle Mills, and a rather grudging acceptance among the small Quaker community of Faithwell. Ohio is still frontier country; most people are recently arrived and many are looking to move on in the future. It is also on the route used by runaway slaves from the Southern states, seeking to escape to freedom in Canada along the network known as the Underground Railroad. Honor’s conscience prompts her to help the runaways – but the Quaker family she has joined forbids her to break the law by doing so. Can Honor build a life for herself that will allow her to live with both her duty and her conscience?

The Last Runaway beautifully creates the world of small-town Ohio in the 1850s. Landscapes, buildings and way of life are described in detail, seen through the eyes of Honor to whom all is new and strange. As a result, this is a lovely book for the day-to-day detail of domestic life. Honor expects to earn her keep, and learns to apply her skill with a needle to hat-making and the unfamiliar American style of quilt-making, which uses applique designs in bold colours instead of the pieced patchwork of English quilting. Later, she turns her hand to the daily tasks of a dairy farm and the enormous amount of preserving required to store enough food to withstand an Ohio winter. I enjoyed the domestic detail, which I thought built up a convincing picture of Honor’s new world without ever becoming dull. However, I should add the caveat that I have an interest in needlework and have tried my hand and both patchwork and quilting, so these details appealed to me (and I picked up one or two useful tips from Honor and Belle). For readers without this interest, I could imagine that the detail might seem repetitive.

Honor also has to become accustomed to American social conventions – Americans are more ‘direct’ in their way of speaking (as Honor diplomatically puts it to herself) and more focused on their own concerns, compared with Honor’s previous community in England. The biggest contrast is the sense of impermanence Honor experiences in America. Coming from an established English town with a thousand years of history behind it, Honor finds the rootlessness of Ohio as disorienting as the harsh winters and the isolation. Most of the social differences, however disorienting for Honor, are relatively minor, leading to discomfort rather than disaster. The big exception is slavery. Honor abhors slavery. In England this was a simple principle to uphold, as slavery had already been abolished. In America, however, slavery is still a major part of the slave states to the south, even if not permitted in Ohio, and Honor comes into contact with it via the runaway slaves. Now she has to act on her principles, not merely think about them. If she gives aid to the runaways she risks ruin not just for herself but for her new family; if she does not, she has to live with her conscience. There is no easy answer.

Perhaps because the novel has a domestic focus, the women are the most strongly developed characters. Belle Mills in particular is a delight – generous, forthright, courageous and warm-hearted, she is just the sort of friend anyone would be glad to find in a strange country. By contrast, the men seemed almost interchangeable and a bit dull, with the exception of the rough slave-hunter Donovan who was by far the most lively and complex.

A useful Acknowledgements section at the back lists some suggestions for further reading for those who want to explore the underlying history.

Quietly insistent tale of an English Quaker girl trying adjust to a new life in small-town mid-ninenteenth-century Ohio, against the background of slavery and the Underground Railroad.

Newly-hatched mallard chicks

Mallard ducklings

A nestful of newly hatched mallard ducklings at Flatford Wildlife Garden.  Aren’t they sweet?

When I say newly hatched, I mean it. The mother duck was sitting on a nestful of eggs the night before, and when the volunteers came in next morning to open up, the nest was full of ducklings. Ten of them.

Before the garden opened to the public the same morning, the mother duck had chivvied her babies out of the nest and trotted them off to the river. With a bit of help from one of the volunteers who made her a temporary tunnel under the fence to lead the ducklings through.

(Mother ducks never seem to realise that although they can fly over fences and walls their babies can’t, and that picking a nest site in an enclosed area might not be the most inspired choice. Like the duck some years ago who decided to nest in the enclosed central courtyard of a prestigious office complex, so when the eggs hatched the caretaker had to carry the ducklings through the shiny glass atrium in a bucket with the mother duck quacking anxiously alongside. Fortunately the ‘aaah!’ factor of fluffy ducklings means human help is frequently on hand.)

These ducklings are now probably swimming about on the River Stour somewhere in Dedham Vale, delighting the visitors.

Flatford Wildlife Garden also has several nest boxes occupied by blue-tits and great-tits. Some of the nest boxes are fitted with cameras connected to TV screens in the visitor centre, so you can watch the chicks and the parent birds feeding them, without disturbing them.

Update (30 April): one set of great-tit eggs have hatched, so you can watch the chicks on screen, and the blue-tits are expected to hatch within a day or two.

Flatford Wildlife Garden is open every day from April to October, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm, free entry. Details on the website here. 

April recipe: Lemon cake

Lemon cake

The sharp, bright taste of lemon seems especially well suited to brisk spring days. This simple lemon cake is quick to make and always turns out well.  It is delicious served plain, or if you fancy something a bit more elaborate, it can be sliced in half and filled with lemon curd and/or lemon buttercream.

Here’s the recipe.

Lemon cake

8 oz (approx. 250 g) self-raising flour

3 oz (approx 75 g) light brown soft sugar

4 oz (approx 100 g) butter

1 egg

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons (2 x 5 ml spoons) demerara sugar, optional

Grease a deep cake tin about 6 inches (approx 15 cm) in diameter.

Rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Beat the egg, and add it to the mixture along with the lemon zest and lemon juice.

Mix well until smooth.

Put the mixture in the prepared cake tin and level the top. Sprinkle the top with 2 teaspoons of demerara sugar, if liked. This will give the cake a crunchy top.

Bake in a moderately hot oven at about 170-180 C for about 45 minutes to an hour until the cake is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.

If liked, you can cut the cake in half horizontally and sandwich the halves back together with lemon curd and/or lemon buttercream.  Or you can serve the cake plain, which is what I normally do.

The cake will keep about a week in an airtight tin, and freezes well (freeze it plain, without the buttercream/ lemon curd filling).