The best books about Boudica

Blood Queen is the real story of Lady Macbeth. This is a woman condemned by Shakespeare’s silver pen to a reputation as a cruel, power-hungry, murderous, and ultimately insane noblewoman. The reality is very different. The marriage of this genuine Scottish princess to Macbeth, a ‘Mormaer’ (Lord), brought together two long-warring lines of succession in a genuinely dual rule. The pair held the throne for at least fifteen years and ruled in peace and prosperity, bringing their country great riches and reputation on the European stage. No witches, daggers-in-the-night, or blood-stained hands in this novel, but instead, I hope, a rich and far more real story of a battle for just and fair rule.

When her father dies just before her birthday, seventeen-year-old Aderyn inherits the role of Protector of Atratys, a dominion in a kingdom where nobles are able to transform at will into the bird that represents their family bloodline. Aderyn's ancestral bird is a swan. But she has not transformed for years, not since witnessing the death of her mother - ripped apart by hawks that have supposedly been extinct since the long-ago War of the Raptors.

Aderyn is at the mercy of her brutal uncle, the King, and his royal court. She must venture into the malevolent heart of the Citadel in order to seek the truth about the attack that nearly destroyed her, to fight for the only home she has ever known and for the land she has vowed to protect.

Set in northern Britain in AD430. This explores the rich folklore and culture of post-Roman Britain, where blood-sacrifice, superstition, and warfare were as much a part of everyday life as love, laughter, and song. In the aftermath of a surprise attack Dun Buic lies in smoking ruins and many innocent villagers are dead. As the survivors try to make sense of the night’s events the giant warrior-druid, Bellicus, is tasked with hunting down the raiders and thwarting their dark purpose.

Two thousand years ago, the Romans sought to absorb into their empire what they regarded as a remote, almost mythical island on the very edge of the known world--Britain. The expeditions of Julius Caesar and the Claudian invasion of 43 AD, up to the traditional end of Roman Britain in the fifth century AD, brought fundamental and lasting changes to the island. Not least among these was a pantheon of new classical deities and religious systems, along with a clutch of exotic eastern cults, including Christianity. But what homegrown deities, cults, and cosmologies did the Romans encounter in Britain, and how did the British react to the changes? Under Roman rule, the old gods and their adherents were challenged, adopted, adapted, absorbed, and reconfigured.

When author, Ellen Dee Davidson, finds herself with unusual free time, and a Lama in the Tibetan tradition suggests she “follow the juice,” Ellen realizes that her heart’s desire is to go to the ancient redwood forest near her home and hike and meditate with the old trees nearly every day. Over the course of 9 years of averaging 3 days a week, mostly alone, in the forest, Ellen has all sorts of wild experiences, encountering mountain lions, rutting elk, bears, and having mystical experiences as she slowly discovers the profound healing effects the forest is having upon her. Written in a style of magic realism, the latest science about forest bathing is woven into the mystery of her delightful experiences in the magical realm of a forest.