Never before has an author brought Roman Britain to life for me as Graham Clews did with this tale of three characters whose lives are torn apart and brought together by the circumstances of their time.
From the moment the minor chieftain Cethen wakes with a hangover to watch, along with his pragmatic and sharp-witted wife Elena, as a Roman ship ploughs into his village dock, to his surprisingly timeless “Shit, Elena, how did it come to this?” when Elena must leave him to return to the Roman tribune Gaius, I was wrapped up, enthralled, and thoroughly entertained.
These are not mere characters in a story but living, breathing, feeling people with their own flaws and strengths, people with whom the reader can laugh or despair, people that the reader understands and cares about. That they happen to be living in societies that are foreign and long gone to dust is incidental, especially when the author has clearly done his research to make the foreign world of 71 A.D., if not familiar, then alive and real for the reader.
As a longtime reader, writer, and editor of historical fiction, I urge anyone yearning for not only quality historical fiction but a plain good story to pick up Eboracum: The Village. Graham Clews does not disappoint.
