The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Simon, your novel Para Bellum is set during the Gothic Wars and this is we're towards the end of the fourth century, but we're talking the Gothic Wars, specifically 376AD to 382BC. It is the slow but certain disintegration of the Roman Empire. It’s momentous times,...
Black Horsemen: Numidian Light Cavalry I am currently writing the first book in a new series, out in 2025, centred during the time of the Second Punic War, 218 - 201 BC. It is a fascinating period and one that I previously knew little about, other than some of the...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of Rising TideMunich Wolf, by Rory Clements is set in 1935 Munich. When the body of a young English socialite is found, Kripo detective Sebastian Wolff is called in to solve the politically sensitive case. The...
Roman Andalusia: The Rise and Fall of Empires Andalusia, the large Autonomous Community in the Iberian Peninsular has plenty of Roman history. Writer Alistair Tosh has examined the 3rd century BC and the personalities who fought there including Scipio and the great...
A couple of years ago at the Chalke History Festival, General Sir Simon Mayall, a popular member of the red trouser brigade, Balliol man, and retired military top brass strode onto stage to rapturous applause. Introducing his recently published memoirs he delivered a...
Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon From the Publisher Chiselbury Publishing was founded 2011 to make the works of James Leasor, one of the bestselling and most prolific British authors of the second half of the...
The Emperor Vitellius was not a man of whom Roman historians have ever been proud. He was one of four emperors in 69 CE, the year after the death of Nero, and was famed mainly for eating massive helpings of seafood. Since his nasty death by a thousand cuts, slowly...
Migration & The End of Empire However you line up the different factors involved, there’s no doubt that immigration played a major role in the unravelling of the western half of the Roman imperial system. By the end of the fifth century AD, from Anglo-Saxons north...
It follows on directly from the first, The Capsarius (which incidentally has one of the most gripping openings I have read recently). Equally enthralling, this follows legionary capsarius or doctor Titus Cervianus, with his tent-mates, his cohort and his legion, the...
In the Legion XXII books (Capsarius and Bellatrix) our intrepid Romans come up against the warrior queen of Kush, but who was she, who were her people, and why did this conflict occur? Well, without wanting to drop a plethora of spoilers for the books, here’s a...
