Talk:Pat Southern

Confusion of two authors

I believe this article is confusing two different authors. The Pat Southern who wrote the books listed is from Lancashire, England not Alabama and did not live/study in Rome. She was for many years the Librarian in the Department of Archaeology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne and is listed as such in the 'about the author' section of her early books (eg The Roman Cavalry & The Late Roman Army). Ceola (talk) 10:12, 15 November 2010 (UTC)--Ceola

I have now rewritten the entry using the information in the 'About the author' entries in Southern's published works. Ceola (talk) 17:26, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Notability

I believe Southern meets the academic notability criterion 7 bullet 2 'the person has authored widely popular general audience books on academic subjects provided the author is widely regarded inside academia as a well-established academic expert and provided the books deal with that expert's field of study'. In addition to the number of books she has written and the number of versions produced (an indication of sales volume), WorldCat shows Southern's books are held in many university libraries (eg The Late Roman Army is held in 11 university libraries in the UK).Ceola (talk) 17:26, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Also note her books have achieved acclaim: CLEOPATRA ('In the absence of Cleopatra's memoirs, Southern's commendably balanced biography will do very well' THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH. 'Scholarly and readable... looks carefully behind the rhetoric of a hostile ancient press' DR PETER JONES), JULIUS CAESAR ('Her style is delightfully approachable: lean and lucid, witty and pacy' ANTIQUITY), DOMITIAN: TRAGIC TYRANT ('A lively and wittily written book - the story of a strange life, enjoyably told' CLASSICAL JOURNAL), THE ROMAN EMPIRE FROM SEVERUS TO CONSTANTINE ('Writing with her usual surpassing skill for a broader readership, Patricia Southern distils and immense body of scholarship in history, military archaeology and numismatics' ANTIQUITY).Ceola (talk) 17:57, 18 December 2010 (UTC)