I’m happy to say that I should, all things being equal and the gods continuing to smile on me, be able to announce an exciting new project within the next day or two. It’s something I’ve wanted to work on for years, and I’m so excited that it’s finally come within my grasp…I’d love to say more, but the final deal hasn’t been done…yet…
Watch this space!
Exciting news – for me, anyway. My editor has signed off Soldier of Carthage, which is truly fantastic news. It means that I’m free to set to on the next book. More of which anon…
Mark Me Well, there’ll be big news here in a week or two!
I should have posted about this before, but I’m appearing at the Historical Novel Society’s conference, which is taking place in Manchester, this coming Sunday, the 17th. Please come along if you can! Have a look at the details here.
The theme will be distinctly martial with me, Harry Sidebottom, Douglas Jackson and Robert Low (he of the excellent Viking Oathsworn quartet) taking part. It’s been linked in with the Manchester Lit Fest – and Bernard Cornwell is appearing the night before. I’d love to go, but I’m heading out for dinner with all of the above. No swords, axes or knives are allowed!
On another note, my editor has today given me the thumbs up for Soldier of Carthage. A big phew! It needs a few tweaks, but nothing more than a few hours work. Now for a little break before I get stuck in to the next one, Legionary.
How cool is this? The rostrum from a Roman ship dating from the First Punic War has been found – on the 18th of August – at a depth of 80 metres, off the Egadi islands, which lie to the west of Sicily. The location was the scene of the battle of the Aegates Islands of 241 BC, in which the Carthaginian fleet was defeated; the engagement ended the First Punic War. See a picture of it here.
Things just keep getting found at Caerleon. It seems that they’ve discovered an entire set of lorica segmentata, the ‘plate’ armour that we are all familiar with from TV and film. As there are still substantial gaps in our knowledge about this type of armour, the find is potentially of great importance. Read about it on the BBC here.
Caerleon, the former legionary fortress of Diva, which is only 40 something miles from where I live, is a place dear to my heart. I was delighted to see that there’s been a major find there recently, showing the existence of a lot of large buildings that were previously unknown. Read about it here.
