Author of Saxon historical fiction and non-fiction, 20th-century historical mysteries, and Norse-inspired historical romantasy. Book reviewer and blog host.
Author: MJ Porter, author
I'm an author of historical fiction (Early England/Viking and the British Isles as a whole before 1066, as well as five 20th-century mysteries), a non-fiction title about the royal women of tenth-century England, and historical fantasy.
I’m delighted to share my review for Adam Lofthouse’s Eagle and the Flame #historicalfiction #blogtour #Roman #bookreview
I’m reviewing Eagle and the Flame by Adam Lofthouse
Here’s the blurb
Rebellion is in the air at the far reaches of empire.
Wall of Hadrian, Britannia, AD 367. Tribune Sixtus Victorinus is scouting north of the Wall when he first sees the smoke. Riding south he finds a province in chaos, the local populace in flight, the soldiers absent.
Britannia is ablaze, overrun with barbarians and Valentia is the word on everyone’s lips. But no one seems to have the first clue what it means…
Victorinus may have let his life run to ruin and drunk his youth away, but now he must forge himself into the soldier he always wanted to be, the hero his children think he is.
Because his family are among the missing, and traitors lurk much closer than he could ever believe.
To save his family, he must first save an empire.
EAGLE AND THE FLAME will sweep you through the tumultuous years of the late Roman Empire.
The Eagle and the Flame by Adam Lofthouse is a fascinating reimagining of Britannia during the late 360s. This then is Roman Britain, complete with Roman soldiers and senators, Roman weapons and, of course, Hadrian’s Wall. But, this is also a world of Germanic warriors, Saxon invaders, the tribes from beyond the Wall, and even some pirates.
Historically, the end of Roman Britain might be a few years in the future, but this is a world on the brink, the reach of the Romans starting to fade, and the events in Eagle and the Flame tell of a people as yet unaware of the coming calamities, and, Adam describes it very well. We have abandoned Roman forts, discontented Roman soldiers who aren’t getting paid on time, and the tribes from across Hadrian’s Wall are more aware of what might be happening than the Romans. And the emperor is very far away in Rome.
Our two main characters, Tribune Sixtus Victorinus, and Felicius are opposites of the same coin; one jaded and drunk, the other, still a career Roman soldier. Between them, they must disentangle the unexplained events on the borderlands, and then they must rouse support from all that they can to defeat the coming rebellion.
Eagle and the Flame starts fantastically well, immediately sucking the reader into the world of the 360s. It’s really quite hard to put the book down as the tension ramps up. Tribune Sixtus is a sympathetic character; for all, he is perhaps to blame for many of his problems. The small group of warriors who make up his area of command are well-sketched, and there is tragedy in the offing. Felicius’ life is more regimented, and it is Felicius who gives us a glimpse of what it was to be a Roman in the waning years of the Empire.
I really enjoyed Eagle and the Flame. The book starts with a bang and builds nicely to its conclusion, introducing a great cast of characters along the way. If you’re a fan of stories set in Saxon England, then you’ll love this earlier glimpse of Britannia.
Adam has for many years held a passion for the ancient world. As a teenager he picked up Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden, and has been obsessed with all things Rome ever since. After ten years of immersing himself in stories of the Roman world, he decided to have a go at writing one for himself. He lives in Kent, UK.
I’m resharing an interview I gave when I’d finished writing Lady Estrid, a novel of eleventh century Denmark #histfic #writingadvice #authorinterview
Why did you decide to write about Lady Estrid?
Lady Estrid has been a character that’s long fascinated me. She crops up as a ‘bit part’ character in another series I write, but as time has gone on, I’ve realised that she offers a lot more than I’ve been allowing her so far. And so, I hope at a suitable point in the other series, I decided to explore Lady Estrid for herself. It involves stepping away from my comfort zone of pre-Conquest England in the eleventh century, and allows me to write about Scandinavia at this time period, which has always been a huge area of interest for me.
I’ve written a few long story arcs before, but only two other books which cover such a huge amount of time (about four decades). Such a project allows me to focus on the bigger picture and to put historical characters into a much wider story-arc than writing just about them would allow.
By necessity, Lady Estrid must be a strong woman, able to manipulate the politics taking place around her. I think that there’s a huge and growing interest in such women, and of course, Denmark (and Scandinavia as a whole) at this time, isn’t something that I believe has been tackled before, potentially because of the lack of English Language books about the era.
What drew you towards the Early Medieval era in which you set your book?
I’m fascinated by everything pre-1066 in England, but also wider afield. It’s impossible to tell the story of just one of these later countries, inhabited by Northmen or Norsemen, without looking to what’s happening elsewhere. These characters didn’t abide by our current national boundaries.
What were the challenges you faced in researching this period of history and were there any unexpected surprises?
The biggest problem with writing about this time period is the sources. I’m not as familiar with the Saga material and the works of Adam of Bremen and Saxon Gramaticus, as I’d like to be. As such, I rely much more on secondary sources than I might when writing about the Early English period. And of course, it’s a period where written sources are quite scarce anyway. Not only is it difficult to ‘find’ Lady Estrid, but, as you might have noticed, many of the character share the same names – there are no ends of Swein/Svein/Sven’s and equally, just as many Gytha’s and Gunnhild’s.
I was surprised by just how little the women of the Danish royal family are mentioned in any secondary sources. I’ve recently been on a book buying spree, and even in a new monograph on Cnut, Lady Estrith is only cited in the index seven times, and in a 798-page book, she has about 3 words!
What do you think is the most challenging aspect of writing Historical Fiction?
I think this depends on how much history you want to put in your book. I’ve just written three books in The Ninth Century Series, and while they’re historical in nature, much of the day-to-day activity is actually fighting and swearing. Lady Estrid has a much weightier content. It has a cast of many more people; they all have to be placed in the right time period and at the right events, and there is not as much information about any of them as I’d like there to be. Obviously, The Ninth Century Series was easier to write once the time period was set. Lady Estrid was an altogether different project. It took much longer, and was more frustrating because I was trying to ensure it didn’t conflict with previous stories I’ve written, which have a very ‘Early English’ basis.
What advice do you have for aspiring Historical Fiction authors?
Know the time period you’re writing about, and not just what happens during it, but also what happens both before, and after, and in neighbouring countries as well. And, be aware of what ‘might have happened’ if certain events – normally births, deaths or wars – hadn’t happened. Remember, your characters don’t have the benefit of hindsight that you have as a writer. Everything to them would have been immediate, imminent and happening to them. Don’t fall into the trap of presenting everything as a fait accompli.
And, be prepared to be frustrated. There’s always some niggly little fact that is just not mentioned anywhere. The decision then has to be made as to whether to ‘make it up’ or write around it, and readers will somehow always know if you make it up.
And on a final note, be prepared to do something a little bit ‘different,’ be bold, be creative, do whatever has to be done to engage an audience with the time period.
I’m delighted to welcome Julia Ibbotson and her book, Daughter of Mercia, to the blog with a guest post.
Lady Mildryth of Mercia
It might surprise us to know that women in the Anglo-Saxon period, even early in their history, were regarded as equal in importance to their male counterparts. Women could hold their own wealth, land, possessions; they could inherit from their fathers or mothers on their own account and they could bequeath it to their children. They were not regarded as the property of their husbands or fathers. Their rights were protected in law and it seems that this applied across the social spectrum, from high-status families presumably to ealdormen to thegns to freedmen ceorls and grant-bearer geburs.
High-status women could be leaders of settlements / regions in the years following the immigration and settling of even the early tribes of Anglo-Saxons. They could be strategists and negotiators. Later, for example, Lady Ǣthelflaed of Mercia, the 10th century daughter of King Alfred, strategized battles to take Derby, Leicester, York, and of whom it is said that she was a “man in valour, a woman in name”. The Anglo-Saxon word cūning (king)applies to either male or female leaders, while the word queen (cwene) applies only to the wife of a king. The historical significance of strong female leaders goes right back to Boudicca of the Iceni in the first century AD. Post-Roman Britain was composed of many small kingdoms, and kingdoms fought to take over other kingdoms and thus wield greater power over a larger region. But our theories of this time of great change are beginning to recognise the way that stable everyday life and the quest for peace were also significant.
Lady Mildryth is a fictional character but is bred of such strong female leaders as these. I have based her on other Anglo-Saxon women who have a place in the history of Britain and I wanted her to represent an idea of the powerful yet peace-loving early settlers who wanted to create stable, secure communities, from the chaos and blood-shed of previous generations. Clearly, I have taken liberties with historical characters and events for the sake of my novel and it is not intended to be an accurate academic analysis of the time, but since archaeological excavation is only just gaining a clearer picture of the early Anglo-Saxon period and its domestic and cultural signigifance, maybe my imagination is not so far out!
Recent archaeological excavation and research has demonstrated that even back to the 5th century, high status ladies were buried with signifiers of their wealth in their grave goods: rich jewellery, gold artefacts, precious glass, beautiful fabrics.
Lady Mildryth, as the leader of a region, would have worn fabrics that were richly dyed and decorated: a chemise or shift, a long-sleeved kirtle (under-gown) often of expensive linen or wool, an over-gown trimmed with fur or braid, and an embroidered mantle(cloak). As a high-status woman, she would have eaten well, with home-grown meat, fish, dairy, vegetables, fruit (hedgerow berries but also imported dates, figs, almonds), and she would have drunk honeyed mead and imported wine, during her mead hall feastings.
Although her antecedents are pagan, and she accepts the duality of her people, she finds herself on the cusp of Christianity, yet still drifting to some of the pagan beliefs of her upbringing. Her late mother was from the Cornovii tribe from the people of Pengwern / Powys, Celtic-Brythonic pagans. She was hand-fasted to Mildryth’s father and died when Mildryth was young. Lady M’s character takes after her mother’s strength of will and determination to be on a par with her brothers (Crydda and Cynewald) – although she knows that she must earn this.
Her antecedents are historical (well, possibly legendary!) characters. Her grandfather is Icel, son of Eomer, of the Icinglas (or Iclingas), an Angle from across the seas in Jutland. He is said to have led his people across the North Sea in around 515 AD to the region we now call East Anglia, and is said to have moved westwards across the country, founding the kingdom of Mercia in the 520s AD. His son, Lady Mildryth’s father, is Cnebba who ruled after Icel from possibly around 535 AD.
We speak of the archetypes ‘Peace-weavers’ and ‘Shield-maidens’ in Anglo Saxon society and I see Lady Mildryth as a Peace-weaver. She is a strategist and commander of men, like Lady Æthelflæd of Mercia generations later. But she is also a negotiator and does not wish to conquer other lands or fight to subdue other tribes. She is dedicated to her settlement, her community, and my novel is more about domestic history than that of battles and high kings.
Lady Mildryth strives to make her settlement run smoothly and to encourage the cultural enrichment of her people: a culture taken from her Angeln ancestors as shown in her use of the scōp, the poet story-teller who regales the thegns of the mead-hall with tales of tradition, of warriors, family and legendary heroism. Peace-weavers were often encouraged, or chose, to make expedient marriages with other kingdoms to avert potential strife. There is evidence to suggest that there were battles for lands, yes, but also deals and negotiations so that tribes could coexist. In Daughter of Mercia, Lady Mildryth is certainly aware of this.
If you’d like to read more of life in Anglo-Saxon times, you may like to look at my blog on my website and the 7-part series ‘Living with the Anglo-Saxons’ athttps://juliaibbotsonauthor.comwhere there are also some reference texts.
Here’s the Blurb
Echoes of the past resonate across the centuries as Dr Anna Petersen, a medievalist and runologist, is struggling with past trauma and allowing herself to trust again. When archaeologist (and Anna’s old adversary) Professor Matt Beacham unearths a 6th century seax with a mysterious runic inscription, and reluctantly approaches Anna for help, a chain of events brings the past firmly back into her present. And why does the burial site also contain two sets of bones, one 6th century and the other modern?
As the past and present intermingle alarmingly, Anna and Matt need to work together to solve the mystery of the seax runes and the seemingly impossible burial, and to discover the truth about the past. Tensions rise and sparks fly between Anna and Matt. But how is 6th century Lady Mildryth of Mercia connected to Anna? Can they both be the Daughter of Mercia?
For fans of Barbara Erskine, Elena Collins, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley and Christina Courtenay.
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited
Meet the Author
Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of time. She is the author of historical mysteries with a frisson of romance. Her books are evocative of time and place, well-researched and uplifting page-turners. Her current series focuses on early medieval time-slip/dual-time mysteries.
Julia read English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language / literature / history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. After a turbulent time in Ghana, West Africa, she became a school teacher, then a university academic and researcher. Her break as an author came soon after she joined the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme in 2015, with a three-book deal from Lume Books for a trilogy (Drumbeats) set in Ghana in the 1960s.
She has published five other books, including A Shape on the Air, an Anglo-Saxon timeslip mystery, and its two sequels The Dragon Tree and The Rune Stone. Her latest novel is the first of a new series of Anglo-Saxon dual-time mysteries, Daughter of Mercia, where echoes of the past resonate across the centuries.
Her books will appeal to fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. Her readers say: ‘Julia’s books captured my imagination’, ‘beautiful story-telling’, ‘evocative and well-paced storylines’, ‘brilliant and fascinating’ and ‘I just couldn’t put it down’.
Meet the author, MJ Porter. Five Things You Don’t Know About Me.
I once had thirty-seven rabbits and forty-three gerbils. (I now have no pets at all. Not even a fish). My daughters do have five dogs between the two of them, however.
I dislike my middle name, even though two of my friends use it as their first name. I was given it in case I didn’t like my first name, but I do. Also, my Mum got in a lot of trouble for not naming me after members of the family.
When I was a teenager, I worked in a local music shop, and as a result, I have a unique and detailed knowledge of the music scene during the early 1990s, as revealed to me when I recently watched an episode of Top of the Pops 2 for 1990. I knew the words to almost every song. (The music shop was called Tudor Tunes. Even when I was a teenager, I couldn’t get away from history.) I’ve just googled the shop, and discovered it shut a long time ago. Ah, I’m traumatised.
When I was much younger, I had my picture taken for the local paper wearing a NASA astronaut’s helmet. They had to put a bit of paper in the catch so it didn’t seal me in.
I almost didn’t study history at GCSE, A Level or as a degree. I changed my mind every time, causing many people a lot of problems. I’m not sure I’d get away with it any more. I decided to study history at GCSE rather than Drama after visiting my great-grandfather’s grave, who fought in the First World War. While one of the lucky ones who came home to his family, he died in 1924 from injuries sustained during the war. It made me really angry to think my lovely Grandad grew up without his Dad (he would have been 4 when his Dad died) because of the war, and I wanted to find out why! Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of 20th-century history, because it’s so complicated. There are too many names to keep track of.
My last two bunny friends. Cor, they did love carrot tops.Yep, that’s me in there. Perhaps I was destined to go to space, or as a reader said, ‘to have my head in the clouds.’
I’m reviewing A Very Murder Murder by Kate Wells, a fabulous contemporary mystery set in the Malvern Hills #mystery #newrelease #blogtour #bookreview
I’m reviewing a Very Merry Murder by Kate Wells
Here’s the blurb
Mistletoe, mince pies… and murder
When Jude Gray inherited Malvern Farm, she never thought she’d become so used to farm life, let alone be good at it! But now a beloved national TV show is coming to film their Christmas special on her land, celebrating the charm of rural living and all Jude’s achieved so far.
At least, that’s the plan… until one of the crew is found dead in suspicious circumstances.
At first, it looks like a tragic accident, but when alibis start to crack, it seems like anything but. With a growing list of suspects and enough behind-the-scenes drama to rival anything the cameras are capturing, Jude must dig deep to uncover the truth.
Because someone on her farm is hiding a deadly secret – and this year, the season of goodwill may come with a killer twist…
A Very Merry Murder by Kate Wells is the sixth book in the Malvern Farm Mystery series and I’ve read five of them (see my reviews below). The series is very dependable, and each book is very well written with a good mystery for Jude to unravel. It’s a favourite series of mine.
A Very Merry Murder sees Jude playing host to a film crew on the farm, while also preparing for her sister’s wedding. It’s a busy time for her, and a real strength of these books is that the author rarely forgets Jude is a farmer first and only a sleuth second. We get a good idea of the relentless nature of farming, even though Jude loves it.
The film crew, of course, quickly start causing problems, from the slimy director to the acerbic runner to the two hosts. Are they happily married or not? When the first body is found, Jude immediately senses not all is as it seems, and she works with a recovering Binni to unravel the tangled threads of lies and misdirection from the suspects. And all while preparing for Christmas.
A Very Merry Murder is a festive treat, complete with some snow, and while I’ll be honest and say I did work out the twist in this one, it was still very enjoyable. I highly recommend this series to those who like a contemporary mystery without too much gore.
Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing a new cosy crime series set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up.
