Back to school

Look what I found when researching ancient Celts and Romans…

Just over a week ago, I had one of those 3am moments.

I awoke with a startling revelation. An epiphany if you like.

You see, I have written enough about first century BCE Romans and their civil war strife, pirates, politics, spying on each other, and senseless death and mayhem.

My lovely sister, ensconced for decades on Anglesey in North Wales, even adopting a lilting Welsh accent despite being Anglo-Scots, had said to me “Next time, can you write something involving Druids?”

And now, somewhere between Mabon and Samhain, I had been messaged by nameless druidic gods in the middle of the night.

Druids? Celts? No problem. My wife passed me her library of Celtic myths while I got stuck into whatever the Romans had to do with Celts and Druids and… yup, hooked.

And so the research has begun for my eighth novel, hopefully a series taking in novels nine and 10 as well. Because it’s so rich.

Meanwhile, following recent newsletters on the archaeological digs here on the Channel Island where I live and illuminating lectures hosted by the Alderney Society, I have come to the conclusion that Julius Caesar and his successors stumbled upon a way of life they actively hated. They messed up the lives of people who were quite happy living cheek by jowl with weird and wonderful beliefs and, basically, peace if you don’t raid our cattle and leave my beautiful family alone.

Modern Ukraine and Russia if you will. Or the British expansionist Empire. Or just about any unjust invasion you can name in between.

I began the research which I know will take months and, thinking to start by understanding why Rome did what they did in Gaul, immediately dipped into Caesar’s own Gallic Wars before setting it aside for a richer vein of material. Strangely, the best and most exhilarating was put together as a study paper for schoolchildren and young families and in the middle of the night I found myself doing homework and tests designed for nine-year-olds.

Wordsearch? Useless. Match the Latin and English words? Just about. Colouring in? Went over the lines. I scraped a pass.

When I got to the end, I found that it had been co-written by a colleague on the various Alderney archaeological digs I’ve been involved with, Dr Jason Monaghan. His colleague at Guernsey Museums, Dr Phil De Jersey, has already pointed out in comments on a previous post that burial rites pottery and jewellery found at our Alderney dig was the same as that of the Venelli tribe who lived just across straits on the Contentin peninsula.

So we’ve found Iron Age skeletons bearing Venelli torcs and bracelets and on top of this community the Romans built their own settlement, complete with 4th Century fort and watchtower. What was going on before the Romans arrived? I have some interesting and mysterious ideas on that!

This has got me thinking and researching a series that really ought to begin with Julius Caesar beating a murderous path throughout Gaul and, for my purposes, crushing the Veneti, Venelli and others in what are now Brittany and Normandy, then pushing across the English Channel to have a pop at Britannia. And none of them too happy about the intrusion.

I’ve got the bones of a good story and with it the prospect of long hours of research. If anyone reading this can help with recommendations or ideas addressing such issues as What languages did these Gauls speak? How were the tribes structured? What did they wear, eat, drink and make? I will be in your debt.

Roll on the next 3am revelation!

Do you read historical fiction?

Visit my website or click on the cover image of my latest, Sea of Flames.

Cell Wars

Thanks to all those who took up my offer of a free e-book, Cell Wars – An Inside Story, in my last newsletter, especially to Denise who commented thus: “Imaginative, intelligent and barking mad.” Fair summary, I’d say.

And Finally…

Here’s another image from the Cell Wars cover designer Lynda Adlington who is surely going to find an astonishing career as a book cover designer on the back of this: