Whatever Next?

Finding inspiration in despair

I’ve just finished writing a trilogy on the horror of a tyrant’s self-serving expansionist designs on the country of my birth, albeit set long before any part of Britain was actually a country. The ancient Celts may have had a different view, of course.

The Britannia Conspiracy books 1-3 are now with the publisher’s editors, which gives me a little time to ponder the question: what next?

However, much of that precious time is being consumed with the horror of what the Trump administration is doing to the USA. Not just because it concerns the rest of the world, but because there are real people whose lives are being torn apart in a country that we all thought knew better.

It doesn’t. The legacy press is being systematically crushed and cannot be relied upon to tell us the whole truth. The ‘opposition’ Democrats don’t know whether to fight or cower in the face of so much hatred. Social media is unreliable.

However, there are Substack writers who bravely stick their necks out to keep people like my wife and me informed.

Instead of quietly easing into my daily writing routine, I spend the first two hours of every day absorbing news of new horrors across the world (including the UK) and especially in the US, where things are happening that I couldn’t imagine would ever be possible. All this as I enter that period of my life when I thought I might choose between a spot of gardening and reading a good book. (I find much joy in the latter).

So, in between wondering when Trump and his puppeteers might at last face justice, I am seeking inspiration. And I may have just found it.

A few days ago I was looking through old files and an old ‘great ideas’ list. I found a half-written manuscript about a youth who hid in the sewers of Samaria as Sargon’s ruthless (and very cruel) Assyrian troops bore down on the city’s battered walls.

Ancient Mesopotamia and its tales validated by archaeology and Old Testament writings have always appealed to me, but it’s not material that commands a following these days, at least not like it did in Victorian times. So I’ve looked into the adventurers and scholars who brought Mesopotamia to life for an eager readership in the 19^th Century.

And that’s where I found the story I must tell.

Yet again, it has echoes of tyrants and greedy kings, the like of which we have seen again and again throughout history – and still do today. Powerful men who lied, oppressed and murdered their way to … what? More power? Not today, surely. Does history always repeat itself? You bet.

But we are learning at last, and that’s where we writers of historical tales have a role to play – just look where it took them in the end. Yes, a new world can be born out of what’s happening today because there are more of us who act out of love than of hate.

I’m pleased to report that an author friend who has read all three of my forthcoming series on Caesar’s greedy designs on Britannia has this to say about it: “This series really debunks the ‘Caesar was a great and successful general’ story and focuses on the abilities of his enemies. You have a band of resourceful Celts/Gauls and even one Roman using guile and courage to show Caesar’s invasion up for what it is.

“Even your Romans are not universally evil. Hirtius, Cicero et al have their complexities and are sympathetic. The friendship that reaches over the Roman/British divide is intriguing.”

Watch this space.

What I’m reading

I’ve devoured several books in my rediscovered moments of reading for pleasure. Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession and The Fall of Light by Niall Williams have been a delight for different reasons. Don’t Irish Writers have a way with words?

But currently, I am absorbed in Fiona Forsyth’s third book in her excellent series on Ovid in exile. So far, the third book (just published), Written in Blood, is the best yet and that’s saying something given the excellence of the first two, Poetic Justice and Death and the Poet.

Well-crafted characters, intrigue and, above all, an author on top of her game drawing on vast experience in classical studies. Recommended.

Meanwhile, you’ll find links to my current novels and social media here.