I must say I had my doubts about this novel when I saw it described as “I, Claudius meets The Life of Brian at the pub”. This almost persuaded me not to buy it! But I did, and avoided missing the wonderful passages where Dr Who (yes I will call him that if I want to) criticised three pompous scribes for allowing their translation to rob St. Mark's writing of its soul. The book is influenced by I, Claudius in a way I found hugely enjoyable, and the input from The Life of Brian wasn’t too awful. I did find it difficult to imagine that schoolmaster hero of my childhood, Ian Chesterton, stripped naked and being chased around a bedroom by the lascivious Antonia, though I did feel confident throughout that Barbara would be never be betrayed by her champion to the extent of Ian actually bedding this strumpet from antiquity!