Ruth Downie's Blog, page 10

A Year of Ravens – Rebellion is stirring!

“Britannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her people in a desperate rebellion against the might of Rome, an epic struggle destined to consume heroes and cowards, young and old, Roman and Briton . . . and these are their stories.”

Seven authors, seven styles, seven tales – all fitting together to tell the story of the Boudican revolt as you’ve never heard it before. It’s been a privilege to be involved with this p...

A grand day out with the Celts

How many people can you fit on a war chariot? What did the people Caesar called “Britons” call themselves? Since you’ve finished with that character in your story, can I kill him in mine?

These are the kind of questions that have been bandied about over the summer by the team putting together a collection of interlinked tales to form A Year of Ravens – a novel of the Boudican Rebellion (of which, more when it’s published – hopefully mid-November).

Meanwhile, I’ve been to the British Museum:...

Another skeleton!

Basking in reflected glory here, because some of my former comrades from the site at Whitehall Roman Villa have made a wonderful find: the skeleton of a man who died in about the 5th century, and the remains of the shield that was buried with him. There’s video footage and some pics from the local paper here.

I was privileged to be part of the Whitehall Villa team for over a decade and it was an education: not only about archaeology, but about how volunteers and a supportive landowner can wor...

Distribution confusion – resolved!

Friends, something has gone strangely amiss of late with the distribution of some of the Medicus series in the UK. If you’re searching for a paper copy and even your lovely local bookseller can’t find one, please get in touch via the Contact page and I’ll see whether I can supply the book you want from the box under the bed.

That way, you can relax, sit back and read while the good folk at the publishers run around tearing their hair out.

UPDATE, 3rd September:

I think it’s all been straighte...

Distribution confusion

Friends, something has gone strangely amiss of late with the distribution of some of the Medicus series in the UK. If you’re searching for a paper copy and even your lovely local bookseller can’t find one, please get in touch via the Contact page and I’ll see whether I can supply the book you want from the box under the bed.

That way, you can relax, sit back and read while the good folk at the publishers run around tearing their hair out.

A YEAR OF RAVENS: A NOVEL OF BOUDICA

Lest anyone should think absolutely nothing’s been happening at Downie Towers while the editor was drafting her feedback on Ruso 7 – here’s news of a completely independent project. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the award-nominated team who put together A Day of Fire last year, and this is what we’ve been up to:

A YEAR OF RAVENS: a novel of Boudica

Britannia: land of mist and magic clinging to the western edge of the Roman Empire. A red-haired queen named Boudica led her peop...

Drawing breath

There comes a point when even I have to stop talking. When it seems the supply of words – written and spoken – is drying up, and it’s time to retrench, or retreat, or recharge, or something. The well is empty, and it needs time to refill. So while the editor ponders the first draft of Ruso 7 (which should be published in the spring and may not be called ‘Habeas Corpus’ after all, but more on that at a later date) I’ve been exploring ways of getting in touch with our ancestors that don’t invol...

And the winners of the Free Book Draw are…

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to enter the Free Book Draw, and especial thanks from the cat to several people who said they’d take him too.

I’d like to have sent everybody a book but that would be awfully expensive. So – congratulations to Anne, Paul, Laura and Pete, who turn out to be a delightfully international group representing Canada, Eire, the USA and the UK. As you know, your books will be in the post tomorrow.

Four free books to win! (And no cat.)

THE DRAW HAS NOW CLOSED – THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED! The winners will be announced shortly.

I’m delighted to announce that Bloomsbury are now taking over publication of all the Medicus books.

This means that the first four books, originally called “Ruso and…” in the UK, will be renamed. Each book in the series will have only ONE title everywhere – hooray!

This is how it’ll work…

As there are four books being renamed, I’m celebrating by giving away a free signed copy of any book in the...

The library of illegible books

Big news in recent weeks, as Ruso and Tilla have mentioned on their Facebook page. (They must be reading my mind.) It now seems someone’s found a way to read the charcoal ink on the scrolls that were burned to a crisp by Vesuvius almost 2000 years ago. There really is a chance that Herculaneum’s ‘lost’ library could be recovered, although it’ll be years rather than months before we find out what’s on many of the hundreds of documents that are too fragile to be unrolled.

Slightly irrelevant, b...