The May 16 issue of the London Times includes an interesting and often amusing review of The Goddess and the Bull by archaeology correspondent Norman Hammond. He starts off by pointing out that many writers, including Agatha Christie, Hammond Innes, and Lucy Cadogan have used archaeological digs as place settings for their novels. But my book, Hammond says, "takes a new line--a fact-based account of life on a dig in which the thoughts and emotions of the participants are recorded or emphathised in an effort to bring to life the process of bringing the past itself to life."

Among other remarks, Hammond comments that dig leader Ian Hodder "is effectively portrayed as Manfred, the tortured hero fighting the elements, while his crew are without exception young, slender and attractive (if female) or macho and decisive (if male)." Well, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but I did try to give a sense of drama to the book!

Towards the end of his piece, Hammond quotes British archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler, as I do in my Introduction, to the effect that archaeologists are "digging up, not things, but people..." Indeed, Hammond has it right: this is what my book is all about.