Bryan is being obscure again

For reasons too boring to go into, though a number of you out there will guess why I'm after it, can anyone advise me on where I might be able to get a copy of a translation of La Conquête de Constantinople, an eyewitness account by Robert de Clari?

Amazon.co.uk is useless in this instance, and Amazon.com only has a facsimile of the mediaeval French text, which is not going to be much use to me given my expertise with modern French.

I am told by people who know these things^* that it is a better written and fuller account that Geoffroi de Villhardouin's account in his Memoirs of the Fourth Crusade which I am ploughing through now. Suggestions gratefully received, books gratefully borrowed.


^*i.e. my boss's boss who, would you believe, translates mediaeval French texts on the crusades for fun ( - and I thought I had obscure interests)

Bryan is being obscure again

For reasons too boring to go into, though a number of you out there will guess why I'm after it, can anyone advise me on where I might be able to get a copy of a translation of La Conquête de Constantinople, an eyewitness account by Robert de Clari?

Amazon.co.uk is useless in this instance, and Amazon.com only has a facsimile of the mediaeval French text, which is not going to be much use to me given my expertise with modern French.

I am told by people who know these things^* that it is a better written and fuller account that Geoffroi de Villhardouin's account in his Memoirs of the Fourth Crusade which I am ploughing through now. Suggestions gratefully received, books gratefully borrowed.


^*i.e. my boss's boss who, would you believe, translates mediaeval French texts on the crusades for fun ( - and I thought I had obscure interests)

End of the week

Well, I think everything's sorted and up to date so I can go off on a week's leave with a clear conscience; I will do anyway, but there's always that horrible nagging feeling that something's got forgotten.

Too late, now. I'm off home once I've typed this, and tomorrow I'm off up to Shropshire for a week.

This morning we had a fire drill; they put a little more effort into the evacuation exercise than normal, by taping off one of the stairwells and saying it was full of smoke and fumes.

Cough, cough.

Still, not as much fun as the old days back in the now demolished Marsham Street building when the person at the tannoy would frequently, and to much mirth, announce "If you cannot hear this announcement, please phone extension 1234 and report the fault."

They don't make announcements like that any more, though sometimes they come close.

Ah, it's raining. Just time for one more game of solitaire on the pooter, then.

End of the week

Well, I think everything's sorted and up to date so I can go off on a week's leave with a clear conscience; I will do anyway, but there's always that horrible nagging feeling that something's got forgotten.

Too late, now. I'm off home once I've typed this, and tomorrow I'm off up to Shropshire for a week.

This morning we had a fire drill; they put a little more effort into the evacuation exercise than normal, by taping off one of the stairwells and saying it was full of smoke and fumes.

Cough, cough.

Still, not as much fun as the old days back in the now demolished Marsham Street building when the person at the tannoy would frequently, and to much mirth, announce "If you cannot hear this announcement, please phone extension 1234 and report the fault."

They don't make announcements like that any more, though sometimes they come close.

Ah, it's raining. Just time for one more game of solitaire on the pooter, then.