Reading Aloud - an activity for grown-ups by Deborah Swift @swiftstory

Is there anyone else out there that reads whole books out loud to their adult partner? Is it really an activity for grown-ups?

Well, my partner and I have taken to doing this, and it is a great way to share a story. The tricky part is finding something you will both enjoy and are both willing to invest the time in, as reading aloud to someone else is much slower than solo reading, and it can take more than a month to finish the book. But the rewards for a writer are that you develop a sense of hearing how the story flows, and of finding out what sort of language really triggers the imagination. You become more aware of the sound and texture of the language, and less concerned with writerly devices. You also become much more aware of how historical words or terminology, or unpronounceable names can trip you up.

Reading it yourself is much more active than listening to a "talking book" as you have to make your own decisions on tone of voice, pauses, and dramatic interpretation. It improves fluency of reading, and the ability to listen and take in a story. It is also lovely to be read to by someone you know well, to be delighted by their characterisation and to delight them in return. It gives some shared memories and shared ideas about history, and something to discuss after each 'reading.' We have fond memories of scenes from the books we have read.

Choosing books that we both fancy reading leads to interesting discussions (dare I say arguments) in bookshops, whilst we pick our next choice. We rarely read kindle books because there's something nice about handing a physical book over, at a cliffhanger, and saying, gleefully' 'Your turn.'

We have had one disaster - we read one Booker winner which had rave reviews and it started out with us both loving the language. But unfortunately it seemed to be all writing and no substance, and very repetitive and dull when it was read aloud, and we had to force ourselves through gritted teeth to read to the end. Mind you, hating something is as much a bonding experience as loving it, when it's shared.

Often we will turn to our shared book instead of TV, as it can be picked up and put down at any time that suits us, and packed in the luggage when we go away.

Much more enjoyable than the Booker nominee (which will remain nameless) were Lindsay Clarke's two books about Troy, The War at Troy and Return from Troy which, despite their weight, were gripping, readable, and fun to read out loud. Once we had read the first, then we had to have the second, and it did not disappoint - a cast of gods, heroes and ordinary mortals against the seething background of the ancient world. Jealous gods throwing thunderbolts about led to hilarious use of our rather amateur acting skills, but good writing drags you in, no matter how ham our readings might be.

What works best for us are historical novels where the history does not outweigh the plot, and books where we have a chance to employ the voices of multiple characters. (Though I must admit we always have varying pronunciations of all the names ...)  We are both a little hooked on the ancient world of Greece and Rome, and can recommend The Bull from the Sea by Mary Renault. This was superb, and had us both in emotional knots by the end of the book. So much so that we were both really sad to see the last page. The prequel to that, The King must Die is also a great read for reading aloud. This year in a similar vein we have read Stephen Fry's two books Mythos and Heroes.

Books with short sections or chapters work particularly well, so we don't wear out our voices, though of course tea or wine add to the experience.

Over the past few years we have varied our diet by reading some light-hearted reads  such as The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson and one of our other reads this year was The Order of Time which coincidentally is discussed in the previous post by Antonia Senior.

Other books we've enjoyed reading aloud, and that might appeal to history fans are books about language, such as The Story of English in 100 Words, and The History of the World in Six Glasses (which includes the history of tea, beer etc.) As well as these, we've read books on our common interests in martial arts, crafts, philosophy and poetry. We've been doing this since 2010 and our most prolific reading year was 2012 where we read 11 books together. (apart from our own other reading). In 2016 we only read three, but we will beat that paltry record this year as we've already read three and its only April. But apparently we are not the only ones doing this -  reading aloud for adults is having a resurgence, here's another article about the benefits from The Guardian.

And here on Atlas Obscura, a humorous article about testing the 19th Century's favourite dating tactic - Reading Aloud. The  couples read Modern Painters by John Ruskin and the results of the experiment are fun to read. (even if not aloud!)

So - if there is anyone out there who can recommend suitable reading aloud books, it would be great to have some more suggestions. Do comment with yours!

Find me and my books on my website www.deborahswift.com

Emile Munier - Reading Lesson

Pictures from wikipedia

Ancient Roman Pen and Ink by Caroline Lawrence

This is the time of year when parents encourage their children to write thank you notes for all the Christmas presents they received. That is until recently. Sadly, the art of letter writing seems to be dying. These days Uncle Frank or Granny is lucky to get an email or text message. I am personally still waiting for mine! 

Romans however, were good at writing. One of the most literate ancient societies, some experts reckon about 15% of the population of the Roman Empire could read or write to some extent, but this figure was probably much higher in towns and fortresses. And the literacy rate would also have varied according to place and time. (photo of the famous ‘Sappho’ fresco from Pompeii courtesy of Carole Raddato.)

Romans wrote on a wide variety of materials including marble, granite, etc. (for permanent inscriptions); wax tablets (beeswax in shallow troughs on a thin, flat rectangle of wood); precious stones (to identify owner or maker) and even sheets of metal (e.g. thin sheets of lead for curse tablets). To write on any of these materials you would need to inscribe or incise the letters with a chisel, stylus or other pointed tool.

But for letter writing, Romans mostly used pen and ink. You could write on papyrus (pounded reed paper); wooden tablets (thin sheets of wood such as birch, alder, oak and lime); ivory tablets (known to us via the poet Martial); parchment (animal skin) and even pieces of broken pottery (sometimes called ‘ostraka’ in Ancient Greece). 

Pens were usually made of reeds or metal. Quill pens (made from bird feathers) did not appear until medieval times. Black was the most common colour of ink. Called atramentum from the root ater (Latin for ‘black’) ink was made from ingredients such as soot or lampblack suspended in a solution of gum arabic or glue. Scribes also used ink made from iron vitriol, the same thing used by shoemakers to dye leather black. In the late antique period scribes used oak gall. Cicero and Galen mention the black ink of a cuttlefish (Latin sepia) though it is not certain if this was used for letter writing or not. 

after Öllerer 1998, fig. 9*

Red ink (purpura), made from cinnabar, red lead or red ochre (Latin rubric), was used sparingly in some manuscripts for important or holy words. One bronze ink pot has Latin words punched around its base: CAV(E) MAL(AM) PUR(PURAM) ‘beware the bad red [ink]’. This might indicate that the colour red was apotropaic (i.e. kept away evil) or perhaps it was simply a warning not to suck your pen thoughtfully. 

There are even a few rare references to invisible inks. These were used for magic, love letters and possibly also espionage. For example, words written in milk could be made visible by scattering ash on the text. Some Greek magical papyri even mention an invisible ink made with myrrh. 

Ink was kept in inkwells. These were usually made of metal or pottery, small enough to fit in the palm of the hand. Some had complicated lids to make sure the ink did not spill. Some had chains so a scribe could carry them around. The replica inkwell shown here is based on an ancient original. 

Papyrus was the most common writing material in the Mediterranean area of the Roman Empire. Made of pounded reeds, it was mainly used for scrolls which were unrolled and read horizontally, left to right. The first square of papyrus usually contained the contents of the rest of the scroll. We get the word protocol from the Latin version of the Greek word protokollon ‘first-glued’.

Literate people and scribes often had writing sets. These consisted of an inkwell and a pen-holder, usually leather but sometimes wooden. The leather pouch or wooden box would also have space for knives to trim the pens. Sometimes a writing set had two inkwells: one for black ink and one for red ink. 

Visual evidence from antiquity suggests that scribes wrote on their knees. They would spread the scroll across their thighs with one knee slightly higher than the other and find the right amount of tension in the papyrus or parchment. The source text might lie open on a table before them. But common sense suggests that the table or desk in the tablinum (study) was also used for writing. 

In the past, burial sites containing writing sets were assumed to be those of men, but now that forensic archaeology is so accurate, we know that a surprising number of women and even children from all over the Roman Empire had writing sets buried with them. We don’t know all the implications of this but at the very least it shows that Romans who could read and write were very proud of that ability. 

If only kids today were as proud!

My friend Dr Hella Eckardt at the University of Reading has just finished writing a book about inkwells from the Roman world. It will be called Writing Power in the Roman World: literacies and material culture and it will be available in early 2018, published by Cambridge University Press. A free access catalogue of all Roman inkwells found by Hella will soon be online HERE. 

P.S. Thanks to all my re-enactor friends, especially Zane Green, for allowing me to snap them and their artefacts. 

* Öllerer, C. 1998 Römisches Schreibgerät vom Magdalensberg. Carinthia I 188, 121-155