My obsession with our gorgeous gift books here at West End Lane Books continues and is teetering on the cusp of the clinical.
The latest tome I'm hankering after is Southern Frontiers, A Journey Across the Roman Empire, a fabulous photographic paean to the glory of Rome by the uber-lensman Don McCullin.
Once opened, it's hard to put down again, the majesty of the landscapes matched by McCullin's superb monochrome images.
Shot over the course of several years, Southern Frontiers kicks off in the Levant before moving over to the great ruins of North Africa and McCullin, famed of course as a recorder of conflict, observes in his introduction that what delights him is not simply brilliant light on marble, but the gathering clouds in darkened skies; he notes that as he recorded the stone he was aware of the scale of the labour, the tyranny and slavery that enabled such massive construction as well as the inherent beauty of the architecture.
The historical background to each site is provided by Barnaby Rogerson, a noted traveller and authority on Roman sites.
Those who are particularly interested in the less well trodden Roman paths can gen up on Leptis Magna and much more at the definitive destination for all matters Libyan at www.libyabooks.com.
Back to westendlanebooks.co.uk