In the beginning was Watling Street, the first road scored on the land when the invading Romans arrived on a cold and alien Kentish shore in 41 CE. In the years of fighting that followed, as the legions pushed onwards across what is now England, into Wales and north into Scotland in search of booty, mineral wealth, land and tribute, they left behind a vast road network, linking marching camps and forts, changing the landscape permanently, etching the story of the Roman advance into the face of the land, channelling our lives today. Christopher Hadley, acclaimed author of Hollow Places, takes us on an epic journey into the past, retracing and searching for an elusive Roman road that sprang from one of the busiest road hubs in Roman Britain. The Road is a mesmerising journey into two thousand years of history only now giving up its secrets.