Romans are gathering at Eboracum...

Eboracum Roman Festival banner

Yes, it’s the time of year the Romans invade York. Along with the governor of Britannia and the mighty marching men of six legions (escaping from their humdrum 21st century lives) come a load of riff-raff and camp followers including a bunch of scribblers.

But the good news is that these are seven of the best scribblers. They’ll be lurking in the Hospitium in the Yorkshire Museum gardens during Saturday and Sunday 10 am-4pm each day. If you’re not completely taken over by the Roman living history camp, kids’ army, demonstrations, Roman parades and activities for all ages, come and discover some fascinating fiction. Plus, the authors will be delighted to sign the books you buy.

Simon Turney (S J A Turney)  
With in excess of 25 novels available and 5 awaiting release, Simon is a prolific writer, spanning genres and eras and releasing novels both independently and through renowned publishers including Canelo and Orion.

Look out for Roman military novels featuring Caesar’s Gallic Wars in the form of the bestselling Marius’ Mules series, Roman thrillers in the Praetorian series, set during the troubled reign of Commodus, adventures around the 15th century Mediterranean world in the Ottoman Cycle, and a series of historical fantasy novels with a Roman flavour called the Tales of the Empire.   https://simonturney.com

Ruth Downie
In her own words, Ruth wasn’t looking for the Romans. ‘We only went to Hadrian’s Wall because we thought our children should do something educational on holiday.

Sheltering from the rain in a museum, I read, “Roman soldiers were allowed to have relationships with local women, but they were not allowed to marry them.” Obviously, here was a terrific story waiting to be told. All I had to do was find out everything there was to know about Roman Britain, invent things to fill the gaps, and work out how to put it all together in a novel…

So arose the Ruso (and Tilla) Medicus series of now nine books.

When she’s not researching or writing the Ruso novels, Ruth spends the occasional joyous week grovelling in mud with an archaeological trowel, because Roman Britain is still there. Underneath our feet.   https://ruthdownie.com

Alex Gough
The Emperor's Sword coverAlex’s books are  based around the adventures of Carbo the veteran centurion whose attempts to retire in peace are constantly thwarted. In his real, non-writing time, he’s a vet with some impressive technical books to his name.

He confesses to a decades long interest in Ancient Roman history, and the Carbo series (Watchmen of Rome, Bandits of Rome and the short story collection Carbo and the Thief) is the culmination of a lot of research into the underclasses of Ancient Rome.

His next book, The Emperor’s Sword (Imperial Assassin Book 1), features Roman scout Silus deep behind enemy lines in Caledonia.   http://www.romanfiction.com/books/

L J Trafford

Front cover of Palatine by LJ TraffordL. J. Trafford is the author of the The Four Emperors series. After gaining a degree in Ancient History, she toured across the amphitheatres of Western Europe. A collision with a moped in Rome cut her journey short; she returned to the UK battered and impressively bruised.

She spent several years working as a tour guide, which ended up being the perfect introduction to writing as she relied on creativity and entertainment when telling the history of the tour.

LJ now works in London doing something whizzy with computers, but still finds time to jump back in time to bring tales of Ancient Rome to her readers! Lively ( 😉 ) and witty on social media, she hosts the #phallusthursday Tweet – unmissable!    @traffordlj

Paul Chrystal
Paul works in medical publishing, but combines it with being history advisor to local visitor attractions such as the National Trust in York and ‘York’s Chocolate Story’, writing features for national newspapers and broadcasting on BBC radio.

A contributor to several history magazines, he’s the author of over 100 books published since 2010 on classical history, social histories of chocolate, coffee and tea, transport and local history of towns and cities in Yorkshire, Durham and Greater Manchester.

He regularly reviews for and contributes to ‘Classics for All’ and has contributed to a 6-part series for BBC2 ‘celebrating the history of some of Britain’s most iconic craft industries’, in this case chocolate in York.  From 2019  he’s edited York Historian, the journal of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society.   http://www.paulchrystal.com 

Jane Finnis
Write something about yourself,” they said, and I thought wow, at last I can tell the world how brilliant, charming and beautiful I am. Then they spoilt it all by saying, “But stick to the truth.” Oh well…

Jane’s been fascinated by the past ever since as a child she walked along the Roman roads of East Yorkshire and discovered that York’s medieval Minister was built over something even older, a Roman fortress.

At school she became completely hooked on Roman history when she read t Robert Graves’s I, Claudius and Claudius the God. After studying history at London University, she worked for some years in radio, mostly as a freelance broadcaster for the BBC.

Her Aurelia Marcella series is set in Yorkshire around a mansio, an official inn/way station and there’s a lot of murder about… http://www.janefinnis.com/books/

Alison Morton (That’s me!)

Alison Morton writes the award-winning Roma Nova alternative history thriller series featuring modern Praetorian heroines.

She blends her deep love of Roman history with six years’ military service and a life of reading historical, adventure and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected an MA History.

A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, Alison misspent decades clambering over Roman sites throughout Europe. Fascinated by the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain), at their creation by the complex, power and value-driven Roman civilisation, she started wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by strong women…

Now she continues to write thrillers, cultivates a Roman herb garden and drinks wine in France with her husband. (This is my blog 😉 )

Do come to the Hospitium in the museum grounds and say salve! – we’re all quite nice people really –  or we’ll start a coup, force feed each other with fish garum sauce or possibly fall on our swords. See you there!

 

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO,  PERFIDITAS,  SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA,  INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO.  CARINA, a novella, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories, are now available.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. NEXUS, an Aurelia Mitela novella, will be out on 12 September 2019.

Download ‘Welcome to Roma Nova’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be first to know about Roma Nova news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

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