I'm a historian and linguist. I edit and create Wikipedia articles as a way of building up my knowledge of topics I plan to write about: it'll usually be food history, language history, and ancient and medieval people. I am an Interwikipedian: I have so far begun Wikipedia articles in 8 languages and I have made worthwhile improvements (I think) to articles in 31 languages.

I've also written about Wikipedia: see my subpage The World and Wikipedia. The book credits some 220 Wikipedia editors (and most of them for the best possible reasons): see Editors whose work is mentioned in the book.

Some have asked about the languages I know (or have begun to know), so here's a kind of answer. I don't claim to be a great linguist: if I have a skill in this area, it's simply that languages don't frighten me. I was at Bristol Grammar School, where I learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge. There I studied Latin and Greek at first, afterwards Romance languages and linguistics. I got a bachelor's degree in 1970. I gained familiarity with some other languages because of my work at Cambridge University Library, where I worked with foreign serials and afterwards with South and Southeast Asian materials. To help me with this -- I didn't know any of the languages in advance -- I took classes in Cambridge again (in Sanskrit, Hindi and Pali) and in London (in Burmese and Thai). I never got far with the last two because I didn't remain in the Oriental field for long enough. I did a part-time Ph.D. in ancient history at Birkbeck College London (in 1987-93), which improved my Latin and Greek. Living in France makes me go on learning French, and Wikipedia and my writing keep me in practice with other languages.

My contributions:

• User contributions
• Pages I have begun
• Pages I have improved

If you like, or don't like, what I write, welcome to my talk page, User talk:Andrew Dalby. Welcome, also, to my home page, A Food Word Site. You can even E-mail this user if you like. Two more lists:

• My books and papers
• Books by others that I have cited

And here are some Wikipedia shortcuts and statistics that I find useful.

Andrew Dalby

Varia This user has a website, A Food Word Site This user is a member of the Classical Greece and Rome WikiProject. This user is interested in ancient Rome. This user is interested in the Byzantine Empire. This user is interested in the Medieval period. ' This user is a Historian. This user is a member of the Middle Ages WikiProject. This user is a member of the Biography Wikiproject. This user is a member of WikiProject Wine. This user reads Medieval Latin in bed. This user lives in France. This user wanted Romania to join the EU -- and it did!. This user makes cider. DON'T PANIC Through a time warp this user edits the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This user is a member of WikiProject Portugal. That's all, folks.