So excited to hear what you think!! 😍🫶🏻

9/9 I will end here as I do not want to drop any major spoilers! But, in short, you are all in for such a treat when #BoudiccasDaughter hits the bookshops on 28th August!

Huge thanks to @Elodie_Harper and @HoZ_Books for the opportunity to read it early!

#AncientBluesky #ClassicsBluesky

8/9 It was also fabulous to see some cameos from the wider Elodie Harper Fictional Universe! I adored every scene featuring Senovara (who you may know by another name in #TheWolfDen) and I enjoyed seeing a slightly different side to Pliny through Solina’s eyes…

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7/9 All of the characters are beautifully complex! I especially liked how Elodie handled Paulinus and his dynamic with Solina – my emotions were in knots by the end!

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6/9 Elodie has constructed such an evocative vision of the ancient British and Roman landscapes - I tabbed lots of passages (see below) because they were so beautifully written!

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5/9 Elodie has captured the nature of war in all its messiness and nuance, not shying away from the impact on its victims or those who deliver it, and navigating the more distressing aspects with thought and empathy.

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4/9 #BoudiccasDaughter is also a story about survival - carving out as many pockets of happiness that your circumstances allow and the sacrifices one must sometimes make to do so.

3/9 It enriched the tapestry of the Roman world that Elodie Harper wove in #TheWolfDen trilogy, as well as my understanding of Iceni society and their revolt against Rome, which I have only ever briefly touched on until now.

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2/9 How do I begin to describe how much I loved this book? Through the tale of Boudicca's eldest daughter, Elodie reimagines not a legend but a woman, as we peer into what their lives may have been like and how the idea of “Boudicca” was forged.

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7/7 I also loved the incorporation of quotes attributed to some of the women who featured in the book - it made them feel more tangible and complemented the idea of handing the narrative back over to them.

#TheMissingThread #AncientBluesky #ClassicsBluesky #bookreview #history

6/7 I am in awe of how much research must have gone into this book! Daisy Dunn has such an accessible, immersive, often witty style of communicating history so all that information trickles out at a great pace.

5/7 There was lots to discover about the more familiar names too! I especially loved learning about an extraordinary letter attributed to Cornelia Gracchus urging her son, Gaius, not to use his tribuneship to take revenge on the senators who had assassinated his brother.

4/7 A name that really stood out to me was Telesilla, who not only played a crucial role in defending her city when the Spartans invaded in 494 BCE, but was also an accomplished poet, having taken it up on advice from the Oracle at Delphi as a way to cope with chronic illness.

3/7 This book opens up so many new angles from which to understand the ancient world! Each chapter covers a specific segment of time, pulling together both distinct and shadowy evidence to shine a light on a variety of female experiences and their connections to events within it.

2/7 We decode hidden messages with a Spartan princess, gallop across the Steppe with the Scythian women, and cut through the freezing waters of the Aegean with Hydna, who, along with her father, sabotaged an invading Persian fleet by severing their moorings under the cover of night.