In this sprightly volume...the distinguished architectural historian David Watkin charts the shifting fortunes of the site...Professor Watkin has an engagingly romantic feeling for the place... Deploying a good deal of sharp wit, he reveals how the relatively recent obsession with recovering the Forum's classical past has led to much unhappy destruction and much less scarcely happy invention. -- Matthew Sturgis * Country Life *
[H]e writes in an easily accessible, informative and lucid style that explains the history and details of the site but primarily celebrates the Forum as it should be seen... Well illustrated, this is an excellent guide for the visitor, armchair or otherwise. -- Peter Shaw * Italy Magazine *
In this clever and elegant little book the distinguished architectural historian David Watkin picks up the story where most traditional guide books end. His passionate, provocative and, at times, polemical account of the things 'the archaologists don't want us to see', provides a fascinating tour of the Forum's later history.... Deeply thought-provoking and consciously controversial, this is the perfect book to make us go back to Rome and consdier the things we have missed in the past. -- Thorston Opper * British Museum *
With verve, authority and no little humour, Watkin tells the detailed and complex story of this great but mutilated landmark... It is an almost impossible task, superbly done. -- Peter Jones * BBC History Magazine *
Another triumph... Dr Watkin can surely be included among the wonders of the modern art-historical world. -- Robin Simon * British Art Journal *
