Thank you for subscribing and I am not gone!

Or why Clio has been drinking so little coffee lately...

First of all, I want to say a big thank you to you for subscribing to Coffee with Clio. I started this newsletter with big hopes and plenty of ideas and no clue if anybody else would think it was cool. It means a huge amount that you have taken a chance signing up and I really appreciate it.

Second comes an apology. Coffee with Clio has gone a bit quiet lately, and it isn’t as if the times have stopped being interesting, or that the past has gotten any smaller, so, what gives?

Well, that brings me onto the third thing I want to talk about in this letter - an announcement and a commitment. You see, the main reason I’ve gone abruptly silent is that I don’t always deal with stress head-on: I can be a bit more of a hide-in-a-hole-and-come-out-when-it’s-over kind of coper. For that, I am very sorry. But the reason I’ve been (and remain) a bit stressed is actually really positive and exciting.

Fourteen years after I first began the research to make it happen, and nine years after I began work on this specific project, I am now only weeks away from finishing the manuscript of my first major book project: The Western Indian Ocean in the First Millennium CE. It has changed shape, grown in scope and sometimes seemed impossibly huge in those years, but at last I’m finishing off final footnotes, checking recent publications to make sure I’ve caught anything new, writing my acknowledgements (that made me cry a bit…), compiling a list of images and diagrams (sorting those out is going to make me cry a lot…). On 28th July, the manuscript will be going off to the press and I will be going on a screen-free holiday. (We’re off to Scotland to look at medieval stuff, so look out for more about that in the future.)

The scholar hard at work (fuelled by Coke Zero, not coffee, on this occasion, which I think was summer of 2021). Vindolanda Roman fort, located on Hadrian’s wall, in the North of what is now England, might seem like a long way from the Western Indian Ocean, and that is kind of the point. It is a really, really long way from the Western Indian Ocean, but in the first century CE, a soldier stationed here still thought it was worthwhile asking somebody to send pepper, grown on the west coast of what is now the Republic of India. Check out my book (hopefully in early 2024) to find out more about how and why that was possible and how networks changed over a thousand years that shaped world history. (If you’re wondering why I’m in a drain, well, that has nothing to do with the Indian Ocean. But I do love water management!)

The Book (always with capital letters in my head) is my announcement and this is my commitment: when I get back, I can’t wait to get into writing here regularly. I’ve still got a tonne of ideas (including a new book project). Now I’ve also got you guys to share them with. And the times are still mighty interesting!

In the meantime, sorry for over-estimating what I could get done at the same time as finishing this monster of a project. I’m officially taking a break until that is done, and when it comes out, you’ll be the first to know. Actually, I’ll probably tell you about it long before then :)! And may you have a happy and fulfilling July and August 2023.

Also, if you are keen to know more about those Roman soldiers and their pepper right away, this is my top recommendation for a beach read:

Tomber, Roberta, Indo-Roman Trade: From Pots to Pepper, (London: Duckworth, 2009)