Some relief from the miseries of the camp comes her way when she’s assigned to a foraging party with the students. Still, her Dad’s insistence on authenticity is no surprise to her: we learn that he’s passionately interested in the Iron Age, with all its rituals, and as a dogmatic authoritarian will brook nothing less than the strictest adherence to his interpretation of how they lived back in the day. The set up is described from Sylvie’s resigned teenage point of view: the cramped tent she has to share with her parents, the ceaseless trials of keeping the fire going, the indigestible gruel they have to eat for breakfast, the moccasins on their feet which give no protection from sharp stones on the moorland paths. They’re not academics, but the Dad is a keen hobby historian and, we learn, has taken annual leave to participate in the project. They’re accompanied by 17 year old Sylvie and her parents from Rochdale. A university professor and three of his students taking a course in ‘experiential archaeology’ have constructed a replica Iron Age Camp and mean to live as Iron Age people for a period of days. That image isn’t far off the mark-the events in this powerful short novel take place in nearby Northumberland and concern a group of people engaged in a historical re-enactment. This title conjured up images for me of ghostly Roman soldiers standing guard at Housesteads Fort high above Hadrian’s Wall.
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