LJ Trafford

Sent back the first proofs of Sex & Sexuality in Ancient Greece and was feeling pretty chipper about it until I remembered I've still got the indexing to do. My least favourite part of the process...

I grew up watching Carry On films & That’s Life, a TV show that devoted a whole segment each week to vegetables that had grown into amusingly rude shapes, a primordial soup of an upbringing that means I am pre-programmed to enjoy a good knob gag.
the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

The Gifts of the Greeks: Democracy, Demosthenes and dick jokes? By L.J. Trafford I have written four novels, three short stories and three nonfiction books about Ancient Rome. It was after completing the last of these, An...

My History GIrls blog post is on one of gifts that the Ancient Greeks bestowed upon western civilisation. The knob gag.
the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...

How to Survive in Ancient Rome is going to be translated into Chinese, adding to the Japanese and Polish versions. Interesting that it has not been yet been published in a country that was part of he Roman Empire, aside from Britain of course.

I am off to the big city today and to my new workplace's office for the first time.
Im doing public transport and taxis. I have Passenger Assistance booked to help me on and off the train but this is rush hour in London, which I haven't attempted before.
Wish me luck.

Well i had a fabulous day at the #RoystonBookFair as it was general audience I wasn't expecting too much. But I had several fascinating conversations about Romans with punters, gave my 10 minute talk twice because one lady missed it, so I did it again just for her.
And I sold a few books too!

I'm at the #RoystonBookFair this Saturday giving a short talk on how the Romans measured time, why boiled flamingo never caught on with the lower classes & why insomnia caused the death of so many Romans (according to Juvenal).
Come say hi if you are in the area.
www.roystonbookfair.co.uk

I have the edits for Sex and Sexuality in Ancient Greece. It's a better read than I remember, damn entertaining. Well it's entertaining me anyhow.

I shall be at the #roystonbookfair on 27th September flogging books.
Come say Hi if you happen to be in the area.

With my latest book proposal given the thumbs up, a research purchase

Thank5

I had the BEST 50th birthday. My Mum & my friend Tindi joined us for a shared lunch of 2 massive pizzas, an afternoon board game tournament complete with little trophies to be won & then I stayed up far too late watching Jaws with Mr LJ (my fav film released year i was born)

The trajectory of my life

Hahahaha

Tiz the last day of being in my 40s. Tomorrow I turn the big 50. Gawd I'm getting old.

L.J. Trafford – „Najgorsi cesarze starożytnego Rzymu” – recenzja i ocena Czy warto zgłębiać sylwetki rzymskich cesarzy, którzy byli, delikatnie mówiąc, niezbyt lotni, słabi i kompletnie nieprzygotowani do rządzenia? L.J. Tr

Relying on Google Translate I believe this to be a good review of the Polish version of Ancient Rome's Worst Emperors;
histmag.org/LJ-Trafford-...

I went too far with my post holiday tidying/sorting stuff zeal & decided to put together a flat pack cupboard myself. As boy 2 said of my 2 days work on something that the box said should take 30 minutes, "I'm not being rude Mum but that's the worst craftmanship I've ever seen."
He wasn't wrong.

Phil the first of our guinea pigs to work out the proper way to use the hammock

Exciting news if you're either:
A) Polish
Or
B) Me
Ancient Rome's Worst Emperors has a Polish translation and is available NOW. in Poland I imagine.

Accidentally ate in a Michelin award winning pub declared by Giles Coren as the best pub in all of England.
I should have known something was amiss when I became fiercely protective of my creme brulee. I wasn’t going to let any f**ker even have a taste of it, it was all MINE.

I'm in the Cotswolds on holiday! And yes it's very picture postcard pretty. Like everywhere. I'm starting to hanker after a multi story carpark, a bit of concrete & vandalism

Ancient History Hound: AD 69 and daily life in ancient Rome. LJ Trafford interview. In this special episode I chat with LJ Trafford who has written books covering AD 69 and the four emperors. LJ Trafford has a new book out titled 'How to Survive in Ancient Rome' and we talk about wha...

Had a question about eels in ancient Rome recently which reminded me of this episode with @ljtrafford.bsky.social - lots of topics discussed and was great fun. #ancientrome

sites.libsyn.com/105935/inter...

Aww bless you. Things have indeed improved. I am starting a new job at the end of August

Yes it's Monday & I'm facing redundancy, my Mum is in hospital & the government is about to legalise euthanasia (because nothing bad could ever come of that) but the sun is shining & I've written 2k words of a story.
So bring it on! Sock it to me some more life because I am unbruisable today!

Mine is a general introduction that hopefully inform the reader that is coming fresh to the topic. I couldn’t cover everything in the word count because I wanted to give sufficient space to talk about women in Greece & also so called Greek love. Two very knotty issues.

I'll admit it's been a hard book to write because of the nature of the sources & how they contradict each other that make reaching hard conclusions on any topic difficult. And the subject matter has meant delving into some very dark, unpleasant corners & exploring them head on.

Whereas Sex & Sexuality in Ancient Rome sought largely to explain the contradiction of the in-your-face sexual imagery & emperors sexploits v morality legislation, the Greek version has been more about looking at a society with values so alien to ours & asking hard questions without flinching.

Ha! I am winning at Saturday. I have pinged off 200 word summary of a 85K word book that will sound interesting enough for someone to want to purchase the thing and read it.
The tag line being 'you will never look at ancient Greece the same again.' I certainly won't after 18 months writing it.

Ha! I remember trying to summarise the Late Republic in a paragraph. The most action packed, character packed period.....

I know that feling. I once had to write the history of Rome from Aeneas to Domitian in 3k words. That bit took longer to perfect than the entire rest of the book.
It's even harder in fiction, you have to supply a heap of historical context without sounding like you are.