Author: Jane

Secret agents, skulduggery, crime, romance, and sea voyages... Creator of the infamous Ludo da Portovenere, J.G. Harlond (Jane) writes page-turning historical crime novels set during the 17th Century and World War II. Each story weaves fictional characters into real events. Jane also writes Viking-age historical fantasy drawing on folklore, myths and legends for younger – and not so younger – readers. Prior to becoming a full-time fiction author, Jane was involved in international education and wrote a number of textbooks for Oxford University Press. After travelling widely – she has visited or lived in most of the locations in her novels – she is now settled in her husband’s home province of Andalucía, Spain.

Grave Goods and Rune Stones

Advance Review of The Sea-King and the Sorceress by Neil Price

ISBN-139781541603073

Publication date: Oct 13, 2026   Basic Books 

Neil Price’s very readable new book about what we call the Viking Age draws on information gleaned through the latest archaeological investigation and historical research, which in turn rest on scientific analysis of human remains, grave goods and funeral practices.

Using this information, Price brings to life a long-dead person’s environment and lifestyle. Tombs filled with daily goods such as bowls and combs reveal just as much as those filled with recognisable treasures. Referencing  ancient sagas and rune stones, he also shows where the people we call Vikings travelled to, what they sought and sold, and how many, if not most, never went a’viking at all. Some were hunters, many were farmers, others went east and became Rus’ river-traders; some reached Constantinople and joined an elite Varangian unit.

Some women were merchants; one was a respected matriarch and leader; another was a sorceress. Each of these people had a complex, often very harsh life long ago. Price examines their values and beliefs and shows why imposing modern perceptions of ‘right’ behaviour on the past is meaningless. In each case, however, it is fascinating to see how similar they were to us, and how wildly strange.

As with the excellent Children of Ash and Elm, this is a must read for anyone who wants to know more about Scandinavia during the mis-named Dark and Middle Ages. Highly recommended.

J.G Harlond

Author of The Doomsong Saga: The Doomsong Sword, The Doomsong Voyage, The Doomsong Legend @PenmorePress

 

How living on a Viking Battlefield led to Writing a Viking Age Saga

Long, long ago, before my second son went to live in Sweden and I had grandchildren of Ash and Elm, I had a contract to re-write various Norse myths and legends as short stories for an educational publisher. I was well into the project when the whole thing was cancelled. Disappointing, but these things happen, and if you are a writer you know background reading, research and early drafts are rarely wasted – as long as they are filed under a memorable heading.

Sometime later, I went back to the Sigurd, the Dragonslayer story in the Norse Volsung Saga and started to re-write it as a novel using a fictional reluctant hero. The story came together well and was published as The Doomsong Sword, but as fantasy it didn’t fit too well with my historical-crime fiction so I largely ignored it. Until a couple of years ago, when a combination of factors inspired a second, and now a third, book in what has become my historical-fantasy saga.

For some reason, possibly connected to age-related nostalgia for the bracing winds of an Atlantic beach (I’ve lived beside the Mediterranean for a long time), I kept remembering where I used to live in Northam, North Devon. Our family home was built on a Viking battlefield, and I used to walk our dog down Hubba Lane to the River Torridge. Most days I passed, and took no notice of a monument at what is known locally as Bloody Corner. The stone tablet is engraved with these words:

“Stop Stranger Stop,
Near this spot lies buried
King Hubba the Dane,
who was slayed in a bloody retreat,
by King Alfred the Great”

The monument records the first Battle of Northam, when Hubba (Ubba/Ubbe) the Dane was defeated ‘by the men of Devonshire’. It is described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as occurring in 878 during the reign of Alfred the Great, but I’m fairly certain Hubba was not actually slain by the king.

According to the ASC, a fleet of 33 longships arrived on the North Devon coast, but not for a typical Viking attack and grab raid. Their intention was invasion and settlement of the fertile land of southern and south-western England because their homeland had become too cold and hostile for successful farming. Knowing this, and being familiar with accounts of Viking attacks and settlements in Spain, melded into the outline for a new series beginning with The Doomsong Sword and leading into documented medieval events.

Apart from their infamous reputation for raiding for treasure and slaughtering innocents, the Vikings, or the Danes as they were called in those days, even if they weren’t from Denmark, travelled huge distances for trade and then in search of land, where they could farm and prosper far better than in the Cold North.

 

I was aware of Viking settlements in Galicia (Spain) and how they had reached Jerusalem and Constantinople, but when we visited a small town on the coast of Southern Spain a serious author’s ‘what if’ lodged in my mind. This became The Doomsong Voyage a story based on Viking trade in the Middle Sea.

The third book, The Doomsong Legend, has taken me back home to that Viking battlefield, back to Celtic ‘Defenschire’ and an Anglo-Saxon settlement.  Fact and fiction, real history with elements of Norse myths and legends have come together to form The Doomsong Saga. The genre may be considered historical-fantasy, but magic, witchcraft and the fantastical were an important part of everyday life before electricity, and long, long ago our ancestors were telling similar stories around their communal fire-pits.

https://books2read.com/u/mqlJeZ

JGH

Málaga, July, 2026

Review of ‘Escape of the Grand Duchess’ by Susan Appleyard

In this very interesting work of biographical historical fiction, Susan Appleyard re-creates the adult life of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, youngest sister of Tsar Nicholas II. We follow Olga’s difficult life from her very restricted youth into womanhood, and then the terrors of the Russian Revolution. Olga avoided the dire fate of Romanovs and aristocrats, but survived at a huge cost.

The early part of the novel shows how the Tsar, his family and ministers were largely to blame for their own downfall. Appleyard’s young Olga tries to live an independent life within the small, stifling world of the Romanov court, where protocol rests on a long-established, rigid social ranking . Strict rules define what Olga may and may not do, what she must wear and when, how she must behave on all occasions, and limits any access to the outside world. Olga may never enter a shop, for example. Nor may she choose her own husband. That is decided by the respective mothers, and in this case the bridegroom is a compulsive gambler who can offer Olga nothing but his inherited family title; no love, no companionship, and definitely no children. Trapped in this appalling marriage, Olga turns to a dashing but very upright and formal army officer, far beneath her in status. Gradually, their mutual affection gives her the courage to find her own way in life. Unfortunately, the break Olga so desires comes with the Great War, when her beau is sent to the battle front and she becomes a nurse, facing the blood and suffering in some of the worst of ‘man’s inhumanity to man’.

As Appleyard reveals what happens to Olga, she deftly feeds in some of the history and politics leading up to the decline of the Russian Empire. We see how the Tsar’s weak character and wavering undermine anything his best ministers can advise, and even his mother’s sound advice. We also see how the very dubious Siberian mystic who became known to the world as Rasputin (the debaucher) is brought in to ‘heal’ the Tsar’s haemophiliac heir, and shows how this man’s power over the Tsar and Tsarina hastens their sad fate.

The book comes to a close, when the Bolsheviks finally seize power and, Olga has to make a heart-rending decision, whether to stay with the family, her brothers and their children, or escape into a frightening world with her lover and their children.

After a necessarial slow beginning that shows the minutiae of court life, this book becomes an informative, immersive read. If you are looking for a good long book for a summer read or a winter fireside Susan Appleyard’s Grand Duchess definitely fits the bill.

JGH

Málaga, May, 2026

 

 

Reading and Research for ‘Escape of the Grand Duchess’

In the post below, author Susan Appleyard describes a vital part of the historical novel writer’s craft: how she went about her research before, during, and after writing the first draft of her new historical biography of a Russian Grand Duchess. JGH

One of the best things about writing a book set in the past is the research. Others have described it as ‘going down a rabbit hole’, which is apt because researching one thing often piques an interest in another. Such gems are found at the bottom, which not only help to make the story authentic but are useful for a Trivia player like me.

We have to delve into fields far from our own experience. I had to research what effect opium had on its users, suicide rates, and syphilis. Not that any of those subjects are likely to come up in a Trivia game.

Research is vitally important, not least because a reader out there might know more about something than the author. In one of my early books set in fifteenth century England I mentioned a town my characters were passing by, merely to show the route they took. In a review, a reader pointed out that that town didn’t exist in the fifteenth century and accused me of not doing my research. He/she was right, and I was determined never to let that happen again. Now I research all proper nouns and every article mentioned, e.g. when was the hypodermic first used in whatever country my story is set? When were balloons invented? Did that building exist in the year I mentioned it. What was a character’s favourite brand of tea/ tobacco/ perfume? Nothing escapes my eagle eye that might catch me out – I hope!

My method is to obtain books relevant to the story and read. Mostly these will be biographies of the main character/s. But when the background story is relevant, such as the Russian Revolution or the Crimean War, it becomes necessary to learn more about it. When I write the story, I do a little research along the way if it’s necessary to move the paragraph along.

Where deeper research is required, I simply put (TBR) in that place, meaning to-be-researched. When I’ve finished the first draft, I begin doing the research before the first read-through. I love that part.

Susan Appleyard

May, 2026

 

 

Writing The Doomsong Saga

Most readers of any fiction genre are happy to suspend disbelief and accept a story as ‘real’ for the duration of the novel. Readers of historical fiction also trust the author to tell stories about real people and events, and accept the fictional element required to create scenes and relationships between the characters. Reading historical fantasy – such as the excellent novels by Guy Gavriel Kay, or Game of Thrones, which both include elements of real history, involves a slightly different transaction between the author and reader. Here, we have to imagine the setting and epoch in our mind’s eye, and then describe in everyday words. And that is not always easy.

I have come to writing historical fantasy fairly late in my career. I have always enjoyed classic epic fantasy of the Lord of the Rings kind, but I began reading books by Guy Gavriel Kay a few years ago, and that introduced me to another sort of fictional world.

Kay’s stories involve very real people one can relate to in an alternative version of our world. They also contain a lot of history. The Lions of Al-Rassan, for example, is one of the best books on Spanish history I’ve ever read. Kay conveys the power politics, racial and religious struggles so well I lived every page, sensing that this is what it must have been like. This, for me, is where historical fiction and fantasy come together, offering a clearer insight or meaning to the past.

 

Writing my new series, The Doomsong Saga, involves much the same process as my historical crime fiction. I do a lot of background reading, follow up curious events or details and make reams of notes, which are then consciously, or otherwise, modified for my story. Compelling content is vital, but the devil is in the small details required to make strange happenings believable.
The saga begins in an imaginary early-medieval setting then moves on to include elements of real history and events documented in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Book 1, The Doomsong Sword, began as a re-telling of part of the ancient Norse Volsung saga with a fictional reluctant hero, Davor, who comes to possess the sword named Gram (Anger), Doomsong and Truthteller. Sometime later, I reviewed the Scandinavian history Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price (Basic Books, 2020) and saw the storyline for another book. I then became immersed in what’s now called the Viking Age partly because I spend time in Sweden each year – and partly because I grew up on a Viking battlefield.
Book 2, The Doomsong Voyage, begins with the threat of a recently documented climate catastrophe caused by the eruption of a volcano. I tweaked the dates a little but the ash cloud did make life for Scandinavians even more difficult than it already was, bringing in the fabled Fimbulwinter – a never-ending winter – that forced people to seek new homes on fertile land. As a result of this (in my story), a young tale-maker named Finn sets sail on a Baltic trading knarr to find a pirate named Ice-Heart in the Middle Sea. The pirate is a clan leader, who has the knowledge and personality required to persuade his people to leave all they know and cross the ocean to find a better life. The pirate is not called Ice-Heart without reason, however.  To say more would be a spoiler.
Having lived on the Mediterranean coast of Italy and then Spain for more than half my life, I was familiar with how the Vikings sailed and raided as far as the Levant; how they established camps and then settled in Frankia and Hispania. My fictional Voyage also includes a version of Moorish Al-Andalus, Barbalus. The independent state of Barbalus came from staying in the hill-top town of Vejer de la Frontera.
As I was writing, more and more documented history crept into the story. But there is good deal of magic in it, too. People firmly believed in magic, shape-shifting, enchantments, and the inexplicable power of gods such as Odin/Woden, Thor and Freya in the so-called Dark Ages.

The Doomsong Voyage developed and grew, and once it was finished, I could see how it would make a series. Fortunately, so could my publisher. And, I’m very pleased to say, the book has received some excellent reviews and endorsements by professional historians.

I’ve now completed the third book in the saga, The Doomsong Legend. This has taken me back home to North Devon in the British West Country, where I grew up – on a Viking battlefield. Historians dispute who fought whom and when, but there is little doubt there were at least two major battles on the stretch of land between Northam and Appledore on the River Torridge. Whether Hubba (Ubbe / Hudd) really did lead 23 dragonships into the estuary as stated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle I do not know, but it makes for a good story.

J.G. Harlond
Málaga, January, 2026

Find more about my books on: www.jgharlond.com
The Doomsong Sword: https://mybook.to/DoomsongSaga1
The Doomsong Voyage: https://mybook.to/DoomsongSaga2

 

Medieval Luxury

If you have been watching the ‘King and Conqueror’ tv series about King Harold and William of Normandy, you may assume that life in those days was a matter of mud and guts, of dark interiors, elementary furnishing and minimal, dingy decoration. That was probably the case for the peasantry, not so for the nobility. In the following article, author Malve von Hassell shows life was a lot more colourful and sophisticated than you may think. JGH

The private chamber of Adela of England, Countess de Blois

Adela of England and Normandy (c. 1067—1137), daughter of William the Conqueror, and wife of Henry-Stephen de Blois, most likely enjoyed all the comforts available at the time even if there wasn’t much to be done about the cold damp winters and the drafts in a stone castle.

Baudri, Abbot of Bourgueil, wrote Adela an effusive missive in which he described her chamber as he imagined it.  Even by the standards of the time, his tone was wordy, laced with blatant flattery and an openly stated desire for an elegant cope he hoped Adela would present to him.

Baudri addresses Adele as “hail countess, worthy rather of the name of queen.”

The walls are covered with tapestries, woven according to her design, and all seem alive: on one wall, creation, the fall and fratricide, the flood with fish on mountain tops and lions in the sea; sacred history from Noah through Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, the glory of Moses, and David to Solomon on a second wall; the Greek gods and myths, Phaethon, Ganymede, Cadmus, Pyramis and Thisbe, Hermaphroditus, Orpheus, Troy, and Roman kings on a third; around her bed the conquest of England, William’s claims to the throne as Edward’s chosen successor, the comet, the Norman council and preparations, the fleet, the battle of Hastings with the feigned flight of the Normans and the real one of the English, and the death of Harold.

He goes on at great length, also mentioning the ceiling and the bed hangings as referencing not only all of nature, but all the sciences, liberal arts, and philosophy, as well as rhetoric and medicine, a none too subtle way to flatter Adela for her piety, her political position, the breadth of her education, and her wide-ranging interests.

Over the top, to be sure, but from Baudri’s writing we can deduce with some certainty that Adela had a private space known as a “solar.”

Such a solar was a chamber on an upper floor of the castle, equipped with large windows to let in the sunlight. A lord or lady could enjoy a modicum of privacy for sleeping, reading, needlework, and receiving friends or vassals. A solar was by no means standard. In medieval times, there was little privacy; people slept in shared spaces, often even in shared beds, if beds were available. The great hall of a castle served as a place for eating, entertaining, working with retainers, cooking, and sleeping.

So, what would Adela’s solar have contained? The pride of place was the bed. A wooden bed box or a four-poster bed with a wooden frame supported a straw mattress on ropes strung from one end to the other. This was topped by multiple layers of wool, a feather or down mattress, and linen sheets and blankets. A large, long bolster was stretched across the bed, accompanied by several smaller feather pillows for comfort. Heavy curtains of velvet or silk, richly embroidered, kept out the drafts and protected the sleeper from curious looks.

Tapestries on the walls made the room cozy, and rugs and cushions added to the comfort of the room. In addition to large chests for her clothing and other items, Adela would have had a few chairs and benches for herself and for visitors, and space on a table for manuscripts. As a wealthy and devout Christian, Adela presumably owned a psalter and would have kept it close to hand. A table served for displaying her cosmetics, jewelry, and needlework, all symbols of her wealth and status. The fireplace warmed the room, and candles inside wall indentations and candelabra provided light.

For her daily ablutions, Adela had a ewer and a basin. Women used linen cloths and powders made of herbs to clean their teeth. For a full bath, a wooden tub was brought into the chamber and filled with hot water. As a wealthy woman, Adela would have had expensive soaps available. And herbs, flowers, and scented oils helped to dispel any unpleasant smells in the space.

Lesser nobility generally had to make do with the multifunctional great hall. With any luck, the sleeping areas were set apart by curtains to create some privacy.

And moving down the ladder of the strict medieval social order, peasants slept on the floor in a single room, the bedding consisting of a sack or canvas bag filled with straw or hay.

Of course, rank didn’t necessarily result in sumptuous private quarters. Adela’s brother, the Duke of Normandy, also known as Robert Curthose, at one point in his checkered career was forced to spend days under the covers because he had run out of funds and didn’t have adequate clothing to venture outside. The bedding may well have offered the only source of warmth in the chilly medieval quarters where he was staying.

It’s hardly that different from our time—money and status still determine what sort of personal comfort you are able to draw on.

I once lived in a railroad apartment in New York City with a bathtub on cast-iron feet in the kitchen. The cover over the bathtub served as a buffet table when I had guests, and when friends took a bath, I turned on the radio for their enjoyment. Perhaps for Adela bathing in a wooden tub that would be brought to her room by attendants had a similar charm. Nonetheless, my heart goes out to the attendants who got to sleep on the floor, rolled in a blanket, and inching closer to the warmth of the fireplace, while the lady slept in her curtained sanctuary.

Malve von Hassell (October, 2025)

Source: A letter from Baudri, abbot of Bourgueil and archbishop of Dol (c.1107) to Adela of England, Countess of Blois. https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/94.html

Bio: Malve von Hassell is a freelance writer, researcher, and translator. Her publications include three historical fiction novels for young adult readers, The Falconer’s Apprentice (namelos, 2015), Alina: A Song for the Telling (BHC Press, 2020), and The Amber Crane (Odyssey Press, 2021) as well as the biography of a woman coming age in Nazi Germany, Tapestry of My Mother’s Life: Stories, Fragments, and Silences (Next Chapter Publishing, 2021). Her most recent book is The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois (Historium Press, 2025).

Webpage: https://www.malvevonhassell.com

Blog: https://www.malvevonhassell.com/blog/

Universal sales link: https://books2read.com/u/bpo2vg

Publisher: https://www.historiumpress.com/

© Image : Medieval solar, Blois, Loire Valley – ID: 2123959943 – Shutterstock

 

The Price of Loyalty – review

The Price of Loyalty is very well-researched work of historical fiction. The author, Malve von Hassell, is fully in control of her medieval epoch; what people wore and ate (numerous contemporary recipes), and their general life-style are so well-depicted the story becomes immersive. I journeyed with her characters to and from the Levant, and suffered along with them.

The story centres on the lesser-known historical figure of Adela of Blois, daughter of the infamous William ‘the Conqueror’, and her fictional servant, Cerdic of Wessex. Despite humble English origins (father is killed in the Battle of Hastings and mother lacks the wherewithal to raise him) Cerdic is taken into King William’s household in Normandy as a page and grows up alongside Adela and her brothers. This closeness and familiarity make Cerdic the first person to whom Adela turns for help and support throughout her life. It is a complex relationship, which Cerdic’s wife resents and distrusts.

Cerdic’s unswerving loyalty begins with Adela’s mother, whose actions lead him to serve Count Stephen-Henry of Blois, Adela’s husband. This in turn leads him to marry the only child of a Loire landowner, complicating yet further his relationship and attitude to Adela. As the story progresses, Cerdic has to negotiate personal feelings with his sense of obligation, constantly setting aside his longing to return to his place of birth.

Malve von Hassell has an insightful way of telling the reader about the marital sacrifices, life-choices and responsibilities of both Adela and Cerdic’s wife, Giselle. We see how they are left to manage their husband’s and father’s land respectively, which completely up-ends the usual stereotypes of women as the weaker sex and/or background characters in history. Adela has power, and she uses it. Giselle successfully runs a vineyard, feeds and houses her servants, gives birth and raises children almost entirely on her own from a very young age.

While Cerdic is very aware of Adela’s strengths and achievements, he is largely blind to his wife’s situation, to such an extent that when she follows him all the way to the Holy Land as part of a Crusader retinue, he simply does not see her. Von Hassell’s description of the crusaders’ journey and challenges is also very revealing, and far from the usual presentation of a religious golden opportunity.

Given that the story covers the life of Adela of Blois, who actively influenced numerous people and events in her Anglo-Norman epoch, there was a great deal to include. At times, this felt like a little too much and I did find some sections rather slow going. As a British English reader, I was jolted by the use of various modern idioms and anachronistic phrasing (‘par for the course’: golf), but throughout, I was invested in the main characters and fascinated by how sophisticated they were, despite the lack of medical knowledge and basic amenities. Later chapters include translated documents showing how Adela organised and controlled ecclesiastical matters. The prologue and end-notes include the author’s background reading and original texts.

In all, this it is a very interesting read. Especially recommended for anyone wanting to know more about medieval France, the family of William the Conqueror and Pope Urban’s crusades.

JGH – Málaga, September, 2025

A New Year & New Books

Winter in southern Andalucía can get chilly, but this year, finally, we are having a normal winter with rain, which after so many years of drought is something to celebrate.  After the long Spanish Christmas, I’m back at my desk, working on the third book in my new historical fantasy series for Penmore Press, Doomsong. 

‘Doomsong’ sounds a bit melodramatic, but it was the name of a sword in the ancient Norse Volsung Saga. Sigmund the Volsung pulled a sword named Gram (Anger), Doomsong and Truth-teller from the Barnstock Oak; the only person to do so.
Nowadays, this is classified as fantasy, but it comes from tales told around communal fires in the days of long-ago. Somewhere, there is truth in it. Just as somewhere there is truth in the tales of King Arthur and Excalibur. Perhaps they were meant as a warning against life’s perils, or human frailty. The stories in my new series, however, are grounded on early-medieval events.

NEW RELEASE: The Doomsong Voyage by J.G. Harlond – PENMORE PRESS

I have come to writing historical fantasy rather late in my writing career, but I’ve been reading it for a good while. I’m talking here about books by Guy Gavriel Kay, and G.R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, which rests on a surprising amount of real history.

Kay’s stories are about real people in an imaginary version of Western Europe and include elements of real history. The Lions of Al-Rassan is in the fantasy genre, but it’s one of the best books on Spanish history I have ever read. Kay captures the power politics, racial and religious struggles of Moorish Spain so well through his characters that I lived every word – sensing that this is what it must have been like for real people. This, for me, is where historical fiction and fantasy come together, offering insight into the past. It’s also a liberating and fun way to write a story.

I wrote the first book (of what is to become a series) The Doomsong Sword, after preparing material for a  Norse myths and legends project for a big publisher. They subsequently cancelled the project and I moved on to write more school textbooks. Sometime later, however, I returned to the Volsung Saga and began writing my version of the Sigurd, the Dragonslayer story.

The idea for  The Doomsong Voyage, came after reviewing a non-fiction Viking history, Children of Ash and Elm by Neil Price (Basic Books, 2020). Price has a flesh and blood approach to  history, showing how people lived, what they believed, how and where they traded.
I spend time in Sweden visiting family every year so it isn’t hard for me to imagine those dark days, and they were dark because the eruption of a volcano covered the land with ash and blocked out the sun, making life even more difficult than it already was and bringing in Fimbulwinter – a never-ending winter. This is partly what forced early-medieval Scandinavians to find a new home on fertile land elsewhere.
Starting from this, I began the story of a young man named Finn, who sets sail on a Baltic trading knarr to find a pirate named Ice-heart in the Middle Sea. The pirate is a clan leader, who has the knowledge and force of personality required to persuade his people to leave all they know and cross the ocean to find a better life. He is not called Ice-heart without reason, though – to say more would be a spoiler. Finn is accompanied  by a very strange girl with amber eyes, who is always nearby in moments of danger.

Having lived on the Mediterranean coast in Italy and Spain for more than half my life, I was familiar with how the Vikings raided and traded as far as the Levant. This fictional voyage also includes a version of Al-Andalus. My Independent state of Barbalus was the result of a weekend in the hill-top town of Vejer de la Frontera and staying in an old house with a patio like this.

The Doomsong Voyage is under-pinned with documented history and includes an important current issue, the effects of a climate catastrophe. There is good deal of magic in the story, of course, but in those supposedly Dark Ages people believed in magic, shape-shifting, enchantments and curses, and the inexplicable power of the Aesir gods.

The next story is taking me back home to North Devon in the British West Country. I grew up on a Viking battlefield and I used to pass a monument at Bloody Corner in Northam almost ever day. The monument says:

“Stop Stranger Stop,
Near this spot lies buried
King Hubba the Dane,
who was slayed in a bloody retreat,
by King Alfred the Great”

Historians dispute precisely who fought whom and when, and I cannot believe King Alfred himself was involved, but there were at least two battles fought on the narrow stretch of land between Northam and Appledore between the 9th and 11th centuries. Whether Hubba (Ubbe) really did lead 33 dragonships into the estuary, as stated in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, I do not know, but it makes for a good story . . . Work-in-progress.

You can find the Doomsong stories (ebook or paperback) in most online stores via these universal links:

The Doomsong Sword 
The Doomsong Voyage

Some other very good reading: Jean Gill’s Midwinter Dragon series .

‘an epic medieval saga of the last Vikings, set in windswept Orkney’

If you also enjoy literary historical fiction take a look at Kristin Gleeson’s books about early medieval Ireland: In Praise of the Bees

 

Finding Roma Nova with Alison Morton

The setting for Roma Nova

by Alison Morton

Imagining Roma Nova – Or is it real?

Ever since I read Violet Needham’s Stormy Petrel series as a child I’ve been caught by the idea of imaginary countries in Central Europe.  Needham’s books for children invoke a romantic ‘otherwhere’, making it familiar, with a subtle, understated magical tone. Possibly seeming old-fashioned now, she’s very much the unsung, and sadly unknown, mother of modern fantasy with a mix of heroism, sacrifice and honour. At first her books were deemed by (grown-up) publishers to be too complex for children, but the story goes that one of the children of a family director at William Collins publishers loved the story, so it was accepted for publication. Talk about serendipity!

A little older, I was entranced by The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel Rupert of Hentzau – classic examples of ‘Central Europe’. I thirsted after everything I could find about this amorphous region with no defined boundaries but a definite idea of itself. The Austro-Hungarian Empire seemed to be a concrete representation, but it wasn’t quite. When I learnt German, I found many ideas and writings about Mitteleuropa as a concept. As an adult, I found The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth to be a sweeping history of heroism and duty, desire and compromise, tragedy and heartbreak, a story over generations that lasts until the eve of the First World War. But that empire was vast, diverse and autocratic. Like the Ancient Roman Empire, it collapsed under its own weight and the pressure of people’s desire for their own homeland and self-governance, whether by conquest or democracy.

With all that in mind, my even greater obsession with all 1,229 years of Ancient Rome and a reasonably good knowledge of the alpine regions, I dreamt about an ideal place for the setting for my Romans seeking a new home.  But it would be a small colonia, not an empire! It had to be fertile enough to sustain people, defendable and off the beaten track. So I started researching…

Imagine my delight when I found in real history that at the dusk of the Western Roman Empire people had actually established safe places in the mountains called Fliehburgen. A number of these successfully protected their population during the barbarian invasions, sometimes developing into permanent settlements for decades in the most dangerous periods. And for the Roma Novans, this became necessary in the years after the story in EXSILIUM.

Over their history, the Roma Novans, cultivated their land, built their cities, suffered invasion, rebuilt their cities, extended their holdings, negotiated treaties and managed to survive into the 21st century when the first modern Roma Nova adventure takes place in INCEPTIO.

What does Roma Nova look like in the 21st century?
It’s an alpine country with lower lying valleys a few small towns (Castra Lucilla to the south of the main city, Brancadorum at the east, Aquae Caesaris to the west) and a river city full of columns, a forum, Senate house and temples. High mountains and hills to three sides, although very useful for defence in past ages, keep the 21st century pilots from Air Roma Nova (and most international airlines) on their toes when landing their passenger aircraft after a long haul flight!

Sadly, you can’t use Google Maps to view Roma Nova’s geography from space nor load a Wikipedia page for its history. But inventing a country doesn’t mean you can throw any old facts into your book. They have to hang together. Geography is very important as you need to know what crops they can grow – spelt, oats, olives in sheltered areas, vines, vegetables and fruit – and what animals they raise – cows, sheep, horses, pigs, poultry, etc.

To look back to when those first Roman dissidents left Italy in AD 395 and trekked north to found Roma Nova, I also needed to deepen my specific knowledge about Roman life and culture at that time: their mindset, their customs, their concerns, their ways of doing things. As a reference, the first chapters of Christopher Wickham’s book The Inheritance of Rome draws a clear and detailed picture.

With the Roma Nova books, I’ve used terms that people might already know like the Roman sword, gladius, greeting such as salve, solidi as money, ranks like legate and centurion. But I’ve made the gladius carbon steel, the solidi have currency notes, debit cards and apps as well as coins, and I’ve mixed in other European military ranks such as captain in with traditional Roman ranks. It gives a sense of history that’s gone forward and adapted to the modern age.

Ancient Romans were fabulous engineers and technologists, organised and determined to apply practical solutions to the needs of their complex and demanding civilisation, so I’ve positioned them in the 21st century at the forefront of the communications and digital revolutions.

The silver mines in Roma Nova’s mountains and the resulting processing industry that underpinned Roma Nova’s early economy, and still play an extremely important role in 21st century Roma Nova, are another allusion to ancient Rome. Silver was a big reason the Romans wanted Britannia.  Dacia (Romania) and Noricum (Austria) in central Europe were also of special significance to ancient Rome, as they were very rich in high quality deposits of silver, as well as iron ore, some gold and rare earths. Giving Roma Nova extensive silver deposits provides a strong, plausible reason for its economic survival through the ages.

I also wanted my imaginary country to be near Italy and Austria for international connections.  So it had to be in south central Europe. In the end, I pinched Carinthia in southern Austria, and northern Slovenia as my models. And in summer 2023, I went to the old Noricum capital of Virunum, near Klagenfurt in Austria and was thrilled to visit breathe in the air of ‘Roma Nova’.

Alison Morton © March, 2024

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Review of ‘Exsilium’ by Alison Morton

Exile – the only way to surive

There is an excellent new addition to Alison Morton’s fascinating series Roma Nova, which tells the story of three very different people forced into exile by events in 4th Century Rome.

As I was reading, I became aware through small details that Alison Morton probably knows everything there is to know about 4th Century A.D. Rome and Romans. This knowledge deepens the story a great deal because what happens to the three main protagonists is a result of contemporary circumstances. Circumstances that resonate in our 21st Century. It is surprising, and not a little disquieting, how much our lives have not changed. Religious intolerance, gender issues, family ties and tensions, they are all here, plus the sad need to find a new place to live, and the difficulties and dangers involved in getting there.

I became invested in the main characters and found myself thinking about them between readings: Lucius Apulius, an ex-tribune, Galla Apulia, his eldest daughter, and Maelia Mitela, widow of a man labelled as a pagan traitor for holding on to belief in the ancient gods; each struggle with personal traumas along with the difficulties of a society at a critical point of change. Morton develops her characters in such a way that one can see why they make certain choices, and how they change during the course of the story.

Details of everyday life such as food and clothing, household management and social expectations enrich the story. Action scenes, where the outcome is never obvious, also kept me turning pages. Quality reading for Roman history buffs and hist-fic fans alike. © J.G. Harlond

Buying links: Amazon: https://mybook.to/EXSILIUM

Other retailers: https://books2read.com/EXSILIUM

About the author:

Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough but compassionate heroines. Her ten-book Roma Nova series is set in an imaginary European country where a remnant of the Roman Empire has survived into the 21st century and is ruled by women who face conspiracy, revolution and heartache but use a sharp line in dialogue. The latest, EXSILIUM, plunges us back to the late 4th century, to the very foundation of Roma Nova.

She blends her fascination for Ancient Rome with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history. Alison now lives in Poitou in France, the home of Mélisende, the heroine of her two contemporary thrillers, Double Identity and Double Pursuit.

Social media links

Connect with Alison on her thriller site: https://alison-morton.com

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor

X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/alison_morton     @alison_morton

Alison’s writing blog: https://alisonmortonauthor.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonmortonauthor/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@alisonmortonauthor

Alison’s Amazon page: https://Author.to/AlisonMortonAmazon

Newsletter sign-up: https://www.alison-morton.com/newsletter/

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