Stuart Laycock studied Classics at Jesus College, Cambridge then worked in advertising and marketing for many years. During the Bosnian war he helped set up and run SOS Bosnia , working to alleviate suffering on all sides in the conflict. He went on to run Lifeline Humanitarian Organisation for HRH Crown Princess Katherine of Yugoslavia. He now works as a freelancer in television. Since Cambridge he has kept a close interest in the period surrounding the end of Roman rule in Britain. He has built one of the biggest private collections in Britain of late Roman zoomorphic buckles, and has been working over the last year, with among others Chris Marshall and Kevin Leahy to try to answer some of the main questions about these buckles. He is married, and has two children. Fectio Index click here A daring view about a time of change A review of Stuart Laycock: Britannia - The Failed State: Tribal Conflicts and the End of Roman Britain, The History Press Ltd (2008). The end of Roman rule in the Western empire was not a nice time to be a citizen of that empire. The economy was collapsing in an alarming rate, trade ground to a halt and many lost their source of income. If that was not enough, the climate was changing, forcing farmers to give up marginal fields and pushing the sea inland, forcing the coastal dwellers to flee inland. Wars seemed to be closer than ever, the once-strong Roman military now seemed