Stories about vast buildings that reach up to trap the sky. Stories about arriving as an immigrant and an outsider. Stories about slum landlords with horrible agents (at last, revenge for that gruesome student flat!). Besides, how would the story work without the Roman-vs-Briton tension? I’d already painted myself into enough of a corner by giving them a baby to look after.īut… there are stories you can tell in cities that don’t work as well in a rural society. Then there’s the casual violence of soldier on civilian, and the use of false measures, loaded dice and fake coinage, some of which is on display in the British Museum.Īdd in the splendid locations on offer-Chester, York, Verulamium, Hadrian’s Wall, Roman London and a brief trip to the South of France so Tilla could shock Ruso’s family-and there didn’t seem much reason to send anyone to Italy. The connection between power and greed comes out in a hundred subtle ways: the official traveller who bullies the innkeeper into giving him a horse he isn’t entitled to the tax collector who demands that payments in wheat be delivered so far away that it’s impossible to avoid paying him exorbitant fees to transport them the town councillor who tries to vote for a contract knowing one of his relatives will rake in the profit that follows. The use of religion to whip up violence goes back at least as far as the Druids.

The sale of people into the sex trade isn’t new – it’s something Hadrian tried to restrict. All, in some way, connected to the attempts of Ruso and Tilla to forge a life together.Įven in times of relative peace, there was plenty of drama going on in Roman Britain without me having to make it up. What drives the first half-dozen books is the tension between Roman and Briton, occupier and occupied-all the clashes, compromises and misunderstandings that ensue when foreign boots land on native soil. Anything was better than admitting, “I don’t dare, because other writers do Rome so well.” Besides, there was plenty to write about here. “Are Ruso and Tilla going to Rome?” the editor would ask from time to time, and I would keep very quiet. Most of the stories in the series are set in those “remotest regions:” the Wild West of the Roman empire. Medicus, the first book in the series that features legionary medic Ruso and his British partner Tilla, has this printed at the front:įor the remotest regions of the Earth-Britain. But that can all wait for now while I let Ruth inform and entertain you in her own words. As you may be aware, I’m currently reviewing the whole series of Ruth’s books, which will continue this week with Semper Fidelis, followed by Tabula Rasa and then the new book. I am fortunate indeed today to play host to a guest post by the marvellous Ruth Downie as part of her Blog Tour, celebrating the release of her latest masterpiece ‘Vita Brevis’.

Ruth downie books