More please! Beir Bua (have victory)įantastic historical fiction that captures an indigenous spirit of Ancient Britain. The battle scenes are amazing and jump of the page and the wars between native and Rome are thrilling and Middle Earth-like, but what really leaves a lasting impression is the incredibly moving and layered humanity of the piece and the relationships between mother and child, horse and soldier, lover and warrior and war and country. We know Boudica existed, we know she fought Rome and sacked London and we know she was never caught, all of which takes place in these books, but history can't tell us what she ate, who she loved and what the druids dreamt of, but Manda Scott makes an educated guess in line with the relevant resources at hand. Through archaeology and the myths of Ireland/Britain, Manda Scott pieces together a great story. Historians know very little of the Celtic tribal world and indeed of Boudica. Manda Scott is a very skilled writer, through her writing you almost feel like you're there. It is a world of passion and courage and spectacular, heart-felt heroism pitched against overwhelming odds.Ī lavish, humane, moving, topical, historical saga This is the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Romans came: a twilight world of Dreamers and the magic of the gods a world where warriors fight for honour as much as victory.

Gloriously imagined, Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle re-creates the beginnings of a story so powerful its impact has survived through the ages, recounting the coming of age of Breaca, who at 12 kills her first warrior. It was the culmination of nearly 20 years of resistance against an occupying force that sought to crush a vibrant, complex civilisation and replace it with the laws, taxes and slavery of the Roman Empire. In AD 60, Boudica, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome.

Manda Scott's Boudica will tell the extraordinary, resounding story of Britain's first and greatest warrior queen, the woman who remains one of the great female icons.

Dreaming the Bull by Manda Scott