Gillian Bradshaw
Encyclopedia
Gillian Marucha Bradshaw (born May 14, 1956) is an American
writer of historical fiction
, historical fantasy
, children's literature
, science fiction
, and contemporary science-based novels, who currently lives in Britain. Her serious historical novels are often set in classical antiquity — Ancient Egypt
, Ancient Greece
, the Duchy of Brittany, the Byzantine Empire
, Saka
and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
, Imperial Rome, Sub-Roman Britain
and Roman Britain
. She has also written two novels set in the English Civil War
.
, Virginia
, and spent part of her youth in Santiago
, Chile
. She attended the University of Michigan
, where she won the Phillips Prize for Classical Greek in both 1975 and 1977, as well as the Hopwood Prize for fiction for her first novel, Hawk of May. She went on to advanced study at Newnham College, Cambridge
, where she studied Classical philology
. Hawk of May was published while she was preparing for University of Cambridge
exams.
Bradshaw decided to stay in Cambridge
for another year to write another novel and think about what to do for a career. However, while there, she discovered she could live on her income as a novelist, and she has been writing novels ever since. She also met her husband, who was completing his doctorate in physics
. Bradshaw and her husband, British Mathematical physics
professor Robin Ball, have four children. She says of herself, "I am an enthusiast for classical antiquity
, and love roaming about Graeco-Roman ruins on holiday. The rest of the family has a huge exposure to hypocaust
s and hippodrome
s. They have sometimes protested ('Not another Roman ruin!') but mostly they've quite enjoyed it."
Bradshaw's physicist husband provided one aspect of her portrayal of Archimedes
in her novel The Sand-Reckoner. But as she states in the afterword, her portrayal is based on the ancient sources on Archimedes and not on any living person such as the theoretical physicists she knows. Bradshaw has been a judge in the Institute of Physics
Paperclip Physics competition, and her contemporary and historical novels with a scientific background show a deep interest in human responses to scientific discoveries.
trilogy, Down the Long Wind. These three young adult books — Hawk of May
, Kingdom of Summer
, and In Winter's Shadow
— were released between 1980 and 1982. Set in Sub-Roman Britain
, the trilogy's main character is Gwalchmai
(Gawain), who must choose between supporting his evil mother Morgawse
or his maternal uncle King Arthur
. The title Down the Long Wind is taken from Alfred, Lord Tennyson
's Idylls of the King
:
Bradshaw next began writing adult historical fiction
. Her 1986 novel, The Beacon at Alexandria, features Charis of Ephesus
, a female doctor
cross-dressing
as a eunuch
in 4th century Alexandria
, in Roman Egypt.
The Bearkeeper's Daughter tells the story of Theodora
, empress consort of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I
. Theodora was born into the lowest class of Byzantine society, and was the daughter of Acacius, a bearkeeper for the circus.
Imperial Purple (UK title: The Colour of Power), released in 1988, features Demetrias of Tyre, a woman who was born into slavery but who is becoming a skilled weaver. The plot focuses on her discovery of a plot to depose Theodosius II
and remove from power his sister Pulcheria
.
In 1990 Bradshaw wrote Horses of Heaven, about a marriage alliance between the Saka
Kingdom of Ferghana
and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
. The marriage of King Mauakes and Princess Heliokleia occurs around 140 BC, and brings many changes at court.
— starting with two linked tales involving Ancient Egypt
, The Dragon and the Thief in 1991 and The Land of Gold in 1992. The latter features a Nubia
n princess who survives her parents' murder, and attempts to regain her throne with the assistance of the dragon Hathor
.
These two books were followed by Beyond the North Wind (1993). The novel features a young magician
assigned by Apollo
to protect a tribe of griffin
s from a hostile queen. The title is again a reference to an earlier work, in this that of case Aristeas
of Proconnesus
, a 7th century BC Greek, who reported that the griffins lived in Scythia
, near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind. The Dragon and the Thief, The Land of Gold, and Beyond the North Wind all began as stories for the pleasure of her own children.
Bradshaw then continued her works of serious adult historical fiction with Island of Ghosts in 1998. The novel tells the story of Ariantes, one of 8,000 Sarmatians
in military service to Marcus Aurelius.
In 2000 she wrote her first science fiction
novel, The Wrong Reflection, about an amnesia
c who finds his given identity of "Paul Anderson" to be a fabrication.
This was followed by historical novel The Sand-Reckoner, a telling of the story of Archimedes
of Syracuse, Italy
, from his studies at the Library of Alexandria
to his involvement in the Second Punic War
(218 – 202 BC), and his conflict with Marcus Claudius Marcellus
.
stem cells in childhood after an accident. She is considered a potential psychotic
and is arrested and detained at a mental research facility, where she is threatened with the prospect of undergoing surgery to remove the part of her brain that is responsible for her extraordinary musical talent.
Bradshaw's 2001 historical novel The Wolf Hunt was based on Marie de France
's Breton lai
Bisclavret
, and features Marie Penthive of Chalendrey, a Norman
kidnapped and taken to the Duchy of Brittany. Marie then becomes involved in the life of the late 11th-century Duchy's court and its plots.
Her next historical novel, Cleopatra's Heir (2002) tells the tale of Caesarion
, son of Julius Caesar
and Cleopatra VII of Egypt
, who managed to escape execution at the order of his adoptive brother Caesar Augustus. The young man is then forced in a life of poverty in his new environment, the Roman Empire
.
In 2002 Bradshaw also wrote a short story set in Ancient Egypt
, The Justice of Isis, taking place in Alexandria
in 58 BCE
, during the reign of Ptolemy XII. It was published in The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunits. This short story was also published in Czech
as Esetina spravedlnost in 2004.
This was followed by another historical novel, Render Unto Caesar (2003), featuring Hermogenes, a Roman citizen of Greek
origin, meeting prejudice
in the city of Rome
when he tries to collect a debt, and his body guard, "Cantabra", a former gladiatrix, originally from Cantabria
.
In 2003, Bradshaw also wrote a short story set in the last decades of Imperial Rome, The Malice of the Anicii. Written in the style of a scholarly edition of Ammianus Marcellinus
's History of Rome, the story was published in The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunits.
Bradshaw returned to science fiction with The Somers Treatment (2003). The novel features neurosurgeon
David Somers advancing his own unique treatment of specific language impairment
. However, his research receives its funding from MI5
, for reasons that remain secret to the public.
Her 2004 historical novel The Alchemy of Fire takes place in Constantinople
under Constantine IV
. Anna, former concubine to a prince of the Heraclian Dynasty, attempts to raise her daughter Theodosia on her own while protecting the secret of the girl's noble birth. Meanwhile alchemist
Kallinikos of Baalbek
works in creating Greek fire
.
The Elixir of Youth (2006) was Bradshaw's next novel, looking at the complex relationship between a philosopher daughter and her molecular biologist father, who walked out of the family when she was a child, and whose serum to repair the effects of aging on the skin has gone missing. Like her earlier novel Dangerous Notes (2001), the use of stem cells in research is a theme.
Bloodwood was published in 2007. This novel is set in contemporary Britain, and focuses on Antonia Lanchester, a terminally ill employee of a home-furnishing company, who hands over incriminating files from her employer's computer to an environmental campaign group.
Her next novel, Dark North (2007), was a return to Roman Britain
for Bradshaw. Set in 208 CE
, it looks at the troubled reign of Emperor Septimius Severus
— and his attempt to conquer Scotland
— through the eyes of Memnon (an African cavalry scout) and members of Empress Julia Domna
's household.
The Sun's Bride (2008) is set in Ancient Greece
, in Rhodes in the year 246 BCE
. Shipping, piracy and the politics of the eastern Mediterranean Sea
are the well-researched backdrop to the story of two people caught up in the end of the rein of Antiochus II Theos
and the beginning of the Third of the yrian Wars], and how these change their lives.
London in Chains (2009) is her first historical novel of a planned two set in the English Civil War
. Like many of her novels, it focuses on one woman's struggle for independence in a male dominated world. Starting in 1647, it is set around a Lucy Wentor, a young woman establishing herself in the politically-sensitive publishing trade in London.
"A Corruptible Crown" (2009)follows Lucy's career in publishing: printing news-books and avoiding censors.
's literary heir. Bradshaw's novels with a scientific basis are similarly highly credible.
Gillian Bradshaw's novels have been published in English
in Britain and the U.S., and have been translated into: Czech
(her name also being sometimes translated, as Gillian Bradshawová); Danish
; French
; German
; and Spanish
. In all six of her major published languages, Bradshaw's writing has earned critical acclaim.
In Czech
, she has also had two short stories published. The Justice of Isis was published as Esetina spravedlnost in 2004, and The Malice of the Anicii was published as Zlovolnost Anicijských in 2008.
Translations
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer of historical fiction
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
, historical fantasy
Historical fantasy
Historical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy and related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It is used as an umbrella term for the sword and sorcery genre and sometimes, if fantasy is involved, the sword-and-sandal genre too...
, children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, and contemporary science-based novels, who currently lives in Britain. Her serious historical novels are often set in classical antiquity — Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, the Duchy of Brittany, the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, Saka
Saka
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BC...
, Imperial Rome, Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
and Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. She has also written two novels set in the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
.
Biography
Gillian Bradshaw was born in Falls ChurchFalls Church, Virginia
The City of Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia, United States, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The city population was 12,332 in 2010, up from 10,377 in 2000. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Anglican parish, Falls Church gained township status within...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and spent part of her youth in Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. She attended the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, where she won the Phillips Prize for Classical Greek in both 1975 and 1977, as well as the Hopwood Prize for fiction for her first novel, Hawk of May. She went on to advanced study at Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College, Cambridge
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College...
, where she studied Classical philology
Classical philology
Classical philology is the study of ancient Greek and classical Latin. Classical philology has been defined as "the careful study of the literary and philosophical texts of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds." Greek and Latin literature and civilization have traditionally been considered...
. Hawk of May was published while she was preparing for University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
exams.
Bradshaw decided to stay in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
for another year to write another novel and think about what to do for a career. However, while there, she discovered she could live on her income as a novelist, and she has been writing novels ever since. She also met her husband, who was completing his doctorate in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
. Bradshaw and her husband, British Mathematical physics
Mathematical physics
Mathematical physics refers to development of mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The Journal of Mathematical Physics defines this area as: "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications and...
professor Robin Ball, have four children. She says of herself, "I am an enthusiast for classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
, and love roaming about Graeco-Roman ruins on holiday. The rest of the family has a huge exposure to hypocaust
Hypocaust
A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt"...
s and hippodrome
Hippodrome
A hippodrome was a Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words "hippos and "dromos"...
s. They have sometimes protested ('Not another Roman ruin!') but mostly they've quite enjoyed it."
Bradshaw's physicist husband provided one aspect of her portrayal of Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
in her novel The Sand-Reckoner. But as she states in the afterword, her portrayal is based on the ancient sources on Archimedes and not on any living person such as the theoretical physicists she knows. Bradshaw has been a judge in the Institute of Physics
Institute of Physics
The Institute of Physics is a scientific charity devoted to increasing the practice, understanding and application of physics. It has a worldwide membership of around 40,000....
Paperclip Physics competition, and her contemporary and historical novels with a scientific background show a deep interest in human responses to scientific discoveries.
1980–1990
Bradshaw's first published novels were the Arthurian historical fantasyHistorical fantasy
Historical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy and related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It is used as an umbrella term for the sword and sorcery genre and sometimes, if fantasy is involved, the sword-and-sandal genre too...
trilogy, Down the Long Wind. These three young adult books — Hawk of May
Hawk of May
Hawk of May is the first of a trilogy of fantasy novels written by Gillian Bradshaw which interprets the King Arthur legend. It recounts, from the viewpoint of the warrior Gwalchmai ap Lot, Arthur's rise to power...
, Kingdom of Summer
Kingdom of Summer
Kingdom of Summer is the second book in a trilogy of fantasy novels written by Gillian Bradshaw. The novel tells of the ascendancy of King Arthur and the planting of the seeds of his downfall...
, and In Winter's Shadow
In Winter's Shadow
In Winter's Shadow is the final book in a trilogy of fantasy novels written by Gillian Bradshaw. It tells the story of King Arthur's downfall, as recounted by his wife Gwynhwyfar.-Plot summary:...
— were released between 1980 and 1982. Set in Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain
Sub-Roman Britain is a term derived from an archaeological label for the material culture of Britain in Late Antiquity: the term "Sub-Roman" was invented to describe the potsherds in sites of the 5th century and the 6th century, initially with an implication of decay of locally-made wares from a...
, the trilogy's main character is Gwalchmai
Gawain
Gawain is King Arthur's nephew and a Knight of the Round Table who appears very early in the Arthurian legend's development. He is one of a select number of Round Table members to be referred to as the greatest knight, most notably in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight...
(Gawain), who must choose between supporting his evil mother Morgawse
Morgause
Morgause , known in earlier works as Gwyar or Anna, is the sister or half-sister of King Arthur in the Arthurian legend. In her earliest appearance she is Arthur's full sister by Uther Pendragon and Igraine; Gwyar is her name and she is the mother of Gwalchmei...
or his maternal uncle King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
. The title Down the Long Wind is taken from Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular poets in the English language....
's Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King
Idylls of the King, published between 1856 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson which retells the legend of King Arthur, his knights, his love for Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom...
:
- "And fainter onward, like wild birds that change
- Their season in the night and wail their way
- From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream
- Shrilled; but in going mingled
- with dim cries."
Bradshaw next began writing adult historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
. Her 1986 novel, The Beacon at Alexandria, features Charis of Ephesus
Ephesus
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era...
, a female doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
cross-dressing
Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...
as a eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
in 4th century Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, in Roman Egypt.
The Bearkeeper's Daughter tells the story of Theodora
Theodora (6th century)
Theodora , was empress of the Roman Empire and the wife of Emperor Justinian I. Like her husband, she is a saint in the Orthodox Church, commemorated on November 14...
, empress consort of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
. Theodora was born into the lowest class of Byzantine society, and was the daughter of Acacius, a bearkeeper for the circus.
Imperial Purple (UK title: The Colour of Power), released in 1988, features Demetrias of Tyre, a woman who was born into slavery but who is becoming a skilled weaver. The plot focuses on her discovery of a plot to depose Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
and remove from power his sister Pulcheria
Pulcheria
Aelia Pulcheria was the daughter of Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius and Empress Aelia Eudoxia. She was the second child born to Arcadius and Eudoxia. Her oldest sister was Flaccilla born in 397, but is assumed she had died young. Her younger siblings were Theodosius II, the future emperor and...
.
In 1990 Bradshaw wrote Horses of Heaven, about a marriage alliance between the Saka
Saka
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
Kingdom of Ferghana
Fergana
Fergana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BC...
. The marriage of King Mauakes and Princess Heliokleia occurs around 140 BC, and brings many changes at court.
1991–2000
Bradshaw next turned to writing three children's booksChildren's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
— starting with two linked tales involving Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, The Dragon and the Thief in 1991 and The Land of Gold in 1992. The latter features a Nubia
Nubia
Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization...
n princess who survives her parents' murder, and attempts to regain her throne with the assistance of the dragon Hathor
Hathor
Hathor , is an Ancient Egyptian goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy. She was one of the most important and popular deities throughout the history of Ancient Egypt...
.
These two books were followed by Beyond the North Wind (1993). The novel features a young magician
Magician (fantasy)
A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
assigned by Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
to protect a tribe of griffin
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
s from a hostile queen. The title is again a reference to an earlier work, in this that of case Aristeas
Aristeas
Aristeas was a semi-legendary Greek poet and miracle-worker, a native of Proconnesus in Asia Minor, active ca. 7th century BCE. In book IV of The Histories, Herodotus reports...
of Proconnesus
Marmara Island
Marmara is a Turkish island in the Sea of Marmara. It is the largest island in the Sea of Marmara that is the center of Marmara district in Balıkesir Province...
, a 7th century BC Greek, who reported that the griffins lived in Scythia
Scythia
In antiquity, Scythian or Scyths were terms used by the Greeks to refer to certain Iranian groups of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who dwelt on the Pontic-Caspian steppe...
, near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind. The Dragon and the Thief, The Land of Gold, and Beyond the North Wind all began as stories for the pleasure of her own children.
Bradshaw then continued her works of serious adult historical fiction with Island of Ghosts in 1998. The novel tells the story of Ariantes, one of 8,000 Sarmatians
Sarmatians
The Iron Age Sarmatians were an Iranian people in Classical Antiquity, flourishing from about the 5th century BC to the 4th century AD....
in military service to Marcus Aurelius.
In 2000 she wrote her first science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel, The Wrong Reflection, about an amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
c who finds his given identity of "Paul Anderson" to be a fabrication.
This was followed by historical novel The Sand-Reckoner, a telling of the story of Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
of Syracuse, Italy
Syracuse, Italy
Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in...
, from his studies at the Library of Alexandria
Library of Alexandria
The Royal Library of Alexandria, or Ancient Library of Alexandria, in Alexandria, Egypt, was the largest and most significant great library of the ancient world. It flourished under the patronage of the Ptolemaic dynasty and functioned as a major center of scholarship from its construction in the...
to his involvement in the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
(218 – 202 BC), and his conflict with Marcus Claudius Marcellus
Marcus Claudius Marcellus
Marcus Claudius Marcellus , five times elected as consul of the Roman Republic, was an important Roman military leader during the Gallic War of 225 BC and the Second Punic War...
.
2001 – present
In 2001, Bradshaw published her second science fiction novel, Dangerous Notes. It features Valeria Thornham, a young classical guitarist and composer whose brain was implanted with clonedCloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
stem cells in childhood after an accident. She is considered a potential psychotic
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
and is arrested and detained at a mental research facility, where she is threatened with the prospect of undergoing surgery to remove the part of her brain that is responsible for her extraordinary musical talent.
Bradshaw's 2001 historical novel The Wolf Hunt was based on Marie de France
Marie de France
Marie de France was a medieval poet who was probably born in France and lived in England during the late 12th century. She lived and wrote at an undisclosed court, but was almost certainly at least known about at the royal court of King Henry II of England...
's Breton lai
Breton lai
A Breton lai, also known as a narrative lay or simply a lay, is a form of medieval French and English romance literature. Lais are short , rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural and fairy-world Celtic motifs...
Bisclavret
Bisclavret
"Bisclavret" is one of the twelve Lais of Marie de France written in the 12th century. Originally written in French, it tells the story of a werewolf who is trapped in lupine form by the treachery of his wife...
, and features Marie Penthive of Chalendrey, a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
kidnapped and taken to the Duchy of Brittany. Marie then becomes involved in the life of the late 11th-century Duchy's court and its plots.
Her next historical novel, Cleopatra's Heir (2002) tells the tale of Caesarion
Caesarion
Ptolemy XV Philopator Philometor Caesar , better known by the nicknames Caesarion and Ptolemy Caesar , was the last king of the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, who reigned jointly with his mother Cleopatra VII of Egypt, from September 2, 44 BC...
, son of Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
and Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period...
, who managed to escape execution at the order of his adoptive brother Caesar Augustus. The young man is then forced in a life of poverty in his new environment, the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.
In 2002 Bradshaw also wrote a short story set in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, The Justice of Isis, taking place in Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
in 58 BCE
58 BC
Year 58 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Piso and Gabinius...
, during the reign of Ptolemy XII. It was published in The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunits. This short story was also published in Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
as Esetina spravedlnost in 2004.
This was followed by another historical novel, Render Unto Caesar (2003), featuring Hermogenes, a Roman citizen of Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
origin, meeting prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
in the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
when he tries to collect a debt, and his body guard, "Cantabra", a former gladiatrix, originally from Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
.
In 2003, Bradshaw also wrote a short story set in the last decades of Imperial Rome, The Malice of the Anicii. Written in the style of a scholarly edition of Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Roman historian. He wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Antiquity...
's History of Rome, the story was published in The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunits.
Bradshaw returned to science fiction with The Somers Treatment (2003). The novel features neurosurgeon
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...
David Somers advancing his own unique treatment of specific language impairment
Specific language impairment
Specific language impairment is diagnosed when a child's language does not develop normally and the difficulties cannot be accounted for by generally slow development , physical abnormality of the speech apparatus, autistic disorder, acquired brain damage or hearing loss.-Overview:Specific...
. However, his research receives its funding from MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, for reasons that remain secret to the public.
Her 2004 historical novel The Alchemy of Fire takes place in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
under Constantine IV
Constantine IV
Constantine IV , , sometimes incorrectly called Pogonatos, "the Bearded", by confusion with his father; was Byzantine emperor from 668 to 685...
. Anna, former concubine to a prince of the Heraclian Dynasty, attempts to raise her daughter Theodosia on her own while protecting the secret of the girl's noble birth. Meanwhile alchemist
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
Kallinikos of Baalbek
Baalbek
Baalbek is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude , situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire...
works in creating Greek fire
Greek fire
Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning while floating on water....
.
The Elixir of Youth (2006) was Bradshaw's next novel, looking at the complex relationship between a philosopher daughter and her molecular biologist father, who walked out of the family when she was a child, and whose serum to repair the effects of aging on the skin has gone missing. Like her earlier novel Dangerous Notes (2001), the use of stem cells in research is a theme.
Bloodwood was published in 2007. This novel is set in contemporary Britain, and focuses on Antonia Lanchester, a terminally ill employee of a home-furnishing company, who hands over incriminating files from her employer's computer to an environmental campaign group.
Her next novel, Dark North (2007), was a return to Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
for Bradshaw. Set in 208 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
, it looks at the troubled reign of Emperor Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus
Septimius Severus , also known as Severus, was Roman Emperor from 193 to 211. Severus was born in Leptis Magna in the province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary succession of offices under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of...
— and his attempt to conquer Scotland
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
— through the eyes of Memnon (an African cavalry scout) and members of Empress Julia Domna
Julia Domna
Julia Domna was a member of the Severan dynasty of the Roman Empire. Empress and wife of Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus and mother of Emperors Geta and Caracalla, Julia was among the most important women ever to exercise power behind the throne in the Roman Empire.- Family background...
's household.
The Sun's Bride (2008) is set in Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, in Rhodes in the year 246 BCE
246 BC
Year 246 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crassus and Licinus...
. Shipping, piracy and the politics of the eastern Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
are the well-researched backdrop to the story of two people caught up in the end of the rein of Antiochus II Theos
Antiochus II Theos
Antiochus II Theos was a king of the Hellenistic Seleucid Kingdom who reigned 261 BC – 246 BC). He succeeded his father Antiochus I Soter in the winter of 262–61 BC...
and the beginning of the Third of the yrian Wars], and how these change their lives.
London in Chains (2009) is her first historical novel of a planned two set in the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
. Like many of her novels, it focuses on one woman's struggle for independence in a male dominated world. Starting in 1647, it is set around a Lucy Wentor, a young woman establishing herself in the politically-sensitive publishing trade in London.
"A Corruptible Crown" (2009)follows Lucy's career in publishing: printing news-books and avoiding censors.
Impact and critical reception
Bradshaw has a vast knowledge of classical culture — of life in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds — and she puts that to use in her historical fiction. These critically acclaimed historical novels have led some to consider her Rosemary SutcliffRosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE was a British novelist, and writer for children, best known as a writer of historical fiction and children's literature. Although she was primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults; Sutcliff herself once commented that she wrote...
's literary heir. Bradshaw's novels with a scientific basis are similarly highly credible.
Gillian Bradshaw's novels have been published in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in Britain and the U.S., and have been translated into: Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
(her name also being sometimes translated, as Gillian Bradshawová); Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
; French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
; German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
; and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
. In all six of her major published languages, Bradshaw's writing has earned critical acclaim.
In Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, she has also had two short stories published. The Justice of Isis was published as Esetina spravedlnost in 2004, and The Malice of the Anicii was published as Zlovolnost Anicijských in 2008.
External links
- Gillian Bradshaw's official website
- Interview with Gillian Bradshaw about The Sand-Reckoner
- February 2011 interview with Gillian Bradshaw about her work
- Severn House Publishers (UK) webpage on the Gillian Bradshaw books they publish
- Tor and Forge Books (U.S.A.) publisher's webpage on the Gillian Bradshaw books they publish
- Gillian Bradshaw's page at Fantasticfiction
Translations