Provocations | Alison Morton's Roma Nova

Women as heroes?

All fictional characters are, er, fictional. We borrow, mine, or lift characteristics from Real Life, but unless we want to get sued, the finally moulded form is a construct. We can gender mirror (I love using that expression – also made up), we can speculate, we can imagine.

Ditto the setting. Even if your thriller […]

Alternative history isn’t just about Nazis!

Yes, okay, The Man in the High Castle (original story by Philip K Dick, 1962) and SS-GB (Len Deighton, 1978) are the most prominent ‘what if’s at present. These stories grip our imaginations as the most horrific thing that could have happened to Western Europe/America in the recent history. Of course, Robert Harris’s Fatherland […]

Roman forearm handshake - true gesture or Hollywood codswallop?

Welcome to the home of the Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO, RETALIO and CARINA. Please look around while you are here.

When two people meet formally for the first time, it’s customary to shake hands. Similarly, it’s something you do on parting, offering congratulations, expressing gratitude, or completing an agreement. In […]