Despite living in different countries, Alison Morton and I have been friends for almost ten years, each building our own worlds in our series of novels – mine inspired by my real life in the rural Cotswolds, and hers by her passion for Ancient Rome.
Until her most recent novel, a contemporary thriller set in England and France, Alison’s fiction has been based around an alternative vision of how the modern world might have turned out if the Roman Empire had never entirely fallen. Alison’s love of all things Roman is addictive – she’s even inspired me to dust off my schoolgirl Latin and study the language further. (More about that here.)
I’m delighted to welcome Alison to my blog today to tell us about her gripping series of Roman-inspired thrillers, the first of which is Inceptio – and the start of her new contemporary series, which kicks off with Double Identity.
Hello, Alison, and welcome! Can you you please set the scene for us by pinpointing Roma Nova’s position on the globe?
Ah, this is a bit of a problem as Roma Nova is an imaginary country! Let’s just say a semi-mountainous area in south central Europe.
Can you please give a brief introduction to the books you’ve set in Roma Nova.
They’re thrillers featuring characters who are descendants of Romans who trekked out of Rome in 395 AD. Given the grim, bandit-infested circumstances of Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Europe they were forced to call on the fighting abilities of everybody, whether man or woman. Although retaining their Roman culture and values, in order to survive they changed their society radically and permanently. More below!
One set of four stories (Inceptio, Carina, Perfiditas and Successio) take place in the present day and revolve around Carina who was brought up in the ‘Eastern United States’, a slightly alternative version of the USA, and who seeks refuge in Roma Nova when an EUS government enforcer is hunting her. Carina’s mother was Roma Novan so it’s logical she flees there. She crosses cultures – never an easy process – but becomes well acclimatised to the more structured and straightforward society and is supported wholeheartedly by her grandmother Aurelia.
Winding back to the late 1960s, when Aurelia was a young Praetorian officer, to the early 1980s when she’s become Roma Nova’s foreign minister, the second set of four books (Aurelia, Nexus, Insurrectio and Retalio) tell the story of Aurelia’s battle with her lifelong enemy, Caius Tellus, and of her part in the great rebellion in 1980s Roma Nova.
Carina and Aurelia, while behaving courageously in their efforts to defend their families and their country, both find that the ‘path to true love’ is both uneven and full of potholes.
What makes this place such a great setting for your stories?
Well, mountains usually mean tough people, and that’s a prime characteristic for the Roma Novans whose society has survived through thick and thin for sixteen centuries. I needed a setting able to shelter and nurture a small group of semi-refugees yet be roomy and varied enough to support an expanding population over time. It had to be fertile and support mixed farming in order to feed everybody, yet defensible from most comers over the centuries. Alpine and semi-alpine landscapes are perfect for this, which meant somewhere in south central Europe like Carinthia/Slovenia was ideal. Alpine areas have well-defined passes and routes through them, perfect for modern transport such as trains and fast roads in the twenty-first century.
What is your relationship with the setting for your stories and how much of your life have you spent there?
Well, nobody can spend time in Roma Nova, much as they’d like to, but I’ve enjoyed several walking holidays in Switzerland, Northern Italy and Austria so I have a ‘feel’ for this type of landscape, plus as a ‘Roman nut’, I have clambered over most of Roman Europe. Last year, I had a three-week trip to Carinthia and Slovenia planned including a tour of the Julian Alps and a private guided visit to Virunum near Klagenfurt where the founders of Roma Nova met. Sadly, it had to be cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. But I’ll get there…
What is special about the people native to Roma Nova?
Essentially, they’re direct, hard-working and inventive – pretty much like their ancestors. But just like the original Romans, there are corrupt, greedy and criminal elements. However, there is one outstanding difference to their society from most Western societies – it’s governed by women. This dates from earliest times when daughters and sisters had to heft a sword and fight alongside the men to fend off invaders; there just weren’t enough men in the tiny colony. Older women farmed, traded and ran families and society away from any fighting, and kept the country going. And this became entrenched over the centuries. This gender balancing does upset outsiders though – but that’s their problem, as the Roma Novans say.
If your protagonist or other characters come from elsewhere, what challenges do they face dealing with the local people?
Roma Novans are self-reliant but like to co-operate with their neighbours and are courteous with outsiders unless they attack or attempt to hurt Roma Novan interests. Then those outsiders had better watch out. The justice system is strong and fair and the police (vigiles, later called custodes), while polite, don’t stand a lot of nonsense. Roma Novans are generally well-educated and enjoy a very good standard of living. Although they speak both street Latin and the classical version, most Roma Novans are competent in English and Germanic and many know French and Italian, so visitors can be easy.
What are the distinguishing features of Roma Nova in terms of geography, geology, flora, fauna or any other detail you care to mention?
You probably have to like mountains, the smell of pines and snow! But you’ll also find fields of spelt, oats and barley, dairy farms, orchards, vines in sheltered valleys and lots of market gardens along the course of the main river. Of course, in the city you have public buildings, traffic jams, international retail, hospitals, schools, businesses as you would anywhere else, but also a forum, temples and senate house. But yes, the air is fresh and can get bracing up on the high alp pastures in early spring.
What are your top tips for any readers planning to travel to the setting of your book?
Keep an open mind, make sure you have the correct visa and be ready to enjoy a rich cultural life as well as many open air activities like climbing, horse-riding and walking.
“Only in Roma Nova” – name three things that could only exist/happen there!
- Games in the amphitheatres (sports competitions rather than fights to the death!)
- Wonderful public baths on the traditional Roman system (but with very high public health hygiene standards!)
- People in traditional tunics and sandals especially on warm summer days. The young tend to stay sweltering in tight jeans even in the warmest summers as they think it’s uncool and roll their eyes at their parents. The parents look at them cynically and think, “They’ll learn.”
Are there any other authors’ books with the same setting that you’d like to recommend?
Ha! As far as I know, none exist.
Where is your latest book set?
Double Identity is a departure from the imaginary Roma Nova as it’s set in the ‘real world’. Well, as real as any world in fiction is. We switch between London, Brussels, Strasbourg and Poitou in western France. Why? While Conn Iggulden, the distinguished historical fiction writer, was very kindly endorsing Insurrectio, he asked me why I didn’t take one of my heroines into the real world as a European agent, rather than as an ‘alternative’ Roman. I still had three books to write in the Roma Nova series, but how could I resist such a challenge?
I always wanted to write a heroine with a strong connection to Poitou where I live. Mélisende/Mel des Pittones, although she has an English mother, is like most French people very attached to her native region. Her family has deep roots going back centuries; even her name reflects the old Pictones tribe of pre-Roman times.
I’ve spent a fair proportion of my life in France, so I feel thoroughly at home in this setting. Like Mel, when I go back to London, it feels strange as if everything has shifted since I was last there.
But Mel, who has just finished serving in the French Army, has to buckle up and solve her fiancé’s murder which turns into a full-blown conspiracy, whereas I can sit and write peaceably in the clear light and fresh air of Poitou.
Where will your next book be set?
Ah, I have two ‘next books’. How daft is that?
- One will be set in Roma Nova, back in the late fourth century when Carina and Aurelia’s founding ancestors meet.
- The other, which I’m concentrating on at the moment, is another adventure for Mel which centres on Brussels, Poitou, Rome(!) and the mysterious and dangerous Sahel region of Africa where Mel did three tours during her time in the French Army. There is unfinished business there as well as a shadow game and an incredibly dangerous enemy intent on her destruction.
EXTRACT from Double Identity
[Mel is in the family home in Poitou, waiting…]
Every day since she’d returned from her assessment with her former unit, Mel had watched for the moment when the hands of the gilded Delettrez clock on the mantelpiece approached half past eleven. It was the third of January now and she’d heard nothing. She went to the kitchen, grabbed the yellow-fobbed key off the row of key hooks and jogged down the drive to the tall gates. Through the gate bars, she’d watch the almost silent electric La Poste van glide up the narrow, metalled road. The same woman had delivered letters and parcels for much of Mel’s life.
This morning, Marie-Anne pulled herself out of her yellow van and brandished a fistful of letters.
‘One for you, Mademoiselle Mélisende. From the minister himself.’
Mel doubted it. She unlatched the gate and pulled it open. After the obligatory kissing of cheeks, and a signature for the letter sent by registered post, Mel took the letter.
République Française, Ministre de l’Intérieur on the upper left edge of the envelope and addressed to Sergent-chef des Pittones. Marie-Anne leant over, excitement plain in her eyes, but Mel slipped it into her pocket.
‘Thank you, Marie-Anne. Don’t bother to put the rest in the box. I’ll take them. Bonne continuation.’ Thus dismissed and disappointed, the postwoman trudged back to her yellow van, executed a perfect three-point turn and disappeared into the fog.
Dodging round Madame Blanc, the cook, as she prepared lunch, Mel made herself a coffee and settled on the pale green sofa in the drawing room. She glanced at the envelope. Somebody must have used the wrong one for her posting letter. It should have come from the defence ministry. Maybe it was some kind of extra security check on re-enlisting. She ripped it open.
ALL ABOUT ALISON MORTON
Alison Morton writes award-winning thrillers featuring tough, but compassionate heroines. She blends her deep love of France with six years’ military service and a life of reading crime, historical, adventure and thriller fiction. On the way, she collected a BA in modern languages and an MA in history.
“Grips like a vice – a writer to watch out for” says crime thriller writer Adrian Magson about Roma Nova series starter Inceptio. All six full-length Roma Nova thrillers have won the BRAG Medallion, the prestigious award for indie fiction. Successio, Aurelia and Insurrectio were selected as Historical Novel Society’s Indie Editor’s Choices. Aurelia was a finalist in the 2016 HNS Indie Award. The Bookseller selected Successio as Editor’s Choice in its inaugural indie review.
Alison now lives in Poitou in France, where part of Double Identity is set and is writing a sequel as well as continuing her Roma Nova series.
CONNECT WITH ALISON MORTON
Connect with Alison on her thriller site: https://alison-morton.com
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alison_morton @alison_morton
Alison’s writing blog: https://alisonmortonauthor.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonmortonauthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Alison’s Amazon page: http://Author.to/AlisonMortonAmazon
Newsletter sign-up: http://eepurl.com/ckNeFL
Next month: join Carol Cooper for a trip to Egypt with The Girls from Alexandria – a cracking new novel, hot off the press, that I’m enjoying reading right now!
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I love Alison’s Roma Nova stories – Double Identity is pretty good too! (understatement of the week!) *laugh*
I really enjoyed your interview with Alison – I know her name well so it was really good to ‘meet’ her, as it were – and to hear all about her settings and influences.
Thanks, Jude, I enjoyed it too, and am keen to read the sequel to “Double Identity” as soon as it’s out!
I’m loving this series of “Travels with My Books” guest posts so much that I’m planning to extend it beyond the end of 2021 – it was originally meant to run for a calendar year only.
Debbie asks such interesting questions! Settings are very important especially if they don’t exist in reality. Fictional worlds are fun to build, but you do need to have it worked out down to the last dot.
My new series set in the ‘real’ world still demands a lot of research to get the setting just right. But again, the research is fascinating in itself.
Really enjoyed this post. I love Alison’s books and it was interesting reading more about the background to them. Thanks both.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Anne. I love peeking behind the scenes of an author’s books, and as Alison’s Roma Nova series is in an alternative history world and we can’t go there in real life, having her tell us in person about it is great!
Thank you for saying you enjoy my books. I could witter on about Roma Nova for ever! But you’re right, Anne, background and a peek behind the curtain of a favourite writer can enhance the experience of reading their book. I’m a big fan of that myself.