Constrained by accuracy, I’ve never yet written any scorpions into Britannia. Ruso regularly refers to genuine medical recipes from the ancient world. Imagination aside, there’s marvellous material from beyond these shores to decorate the gaps between the evidence. Which is, as we know, open to interpretation. Meanwhile, the ancient Britons steadfastly refused to write anything down, so all we have is the opinions and inventions of their conquerors. That’s why we know so much about the lives and opinions of wealthy men in the classical world, and so little about their slaves, or about the many women who neither married a famous man nor murdered one. Even if we have the ‘facts’ straight, we all naturally choose to record the parts of a story that strike us as important. They were dumped in foundation pits as hard core. The area has been re-examined since I visited, and we now know that the altars weren’t reverently buried at all. However, I’m mightily glad I never wrote that short story about the poignant ceremony where the soldiers of Maryport buried their stone altars and then marched away, never to return. After all, you can see it, touch it and photograph it. is to get on with his job as a medic in Rome’s Twentieth Legion, and thusĪrchaeology, you’d think, should be safe. On arrival in Britannia, Gaius Petreius Ruso’s needs are simple. You wrote a great post called ‘ First drown your ape‘ about Roman doctors.
Welcome Ruth! We first met on Helen Hollick’s ‘The Wonder of Rome‘ blog hop last year.
She is currently working on the next book and also spends several weeks every summer wielding an archaeological trowel in search of inspiration. The sixth in the series, ‘Tabula Rasa,’ is published this year. It was published as ‘Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls,’ in the UK, where The Times recommended it as one of their ‘Seven best thrillers for Christmas’. The first book in her crime series featuring Roman Army medic Ruso and his British partner, Tilla, was a New York Times bestseller under the title ‘Medicus’. Finally escaping into fiction, she won the Fay Weldon section of the BBC’s End of Story competition in 2004. As a backup she learned typing and shorthand, in the mistaken beliefs that people would always need secretaries and that she might be quite good at it. Ruth Downie read too much Jane Austen at university, emerged with an English degree and a plan to get married and live happily ever after. Writing in an alternat(iv)e history setting.Claudia Dixit’s tourist guide to Roma Nova.The 500 Word Writing Buddy: 35 Inner Secrets for the New Writer.First glimpse: Carina and Conrad’s Roman Holiday.Independent reviews for Double Identity.The Big Thrill feature on Double Identity.
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