Spy novel set around the WORLD
A novel of Boudicca’s daughter: set in SOUTHERN ENGLAND and ROME
8th September 2026
Boudicca’s Daughter by Elodie Harper, a novel of Boudicca’s daughter, set in Southern England and Rome.
Shortlisted for the 2026 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize
The author has penned a wonderful series – the Wolf Den Trilogy – set around POMPEII. And now she has turned her hand to the Iceni, focussing on Solina who, in this fictional story, is Boudicca’s daughter. In history there is scant mention of Boudicca’s two daughters, so the author has been inventive about the storyline.
The story opens in East Anglia where the tone for the early pugnacious female protagonists of the Wolf tribe – sisters Solina and Bellenia – is set, as they ride back to base. The Roman settlers, who have by now embedded themselves in the country, have forbidden the local Iceni from bearing arms. Boudicca and her troops are one of a kind and she will not lay her arms down for anyone. Later in the story, as Solina travels to Rome, she ponders at one point whether her mother would have actually taken on the Romans had she known about the vast and impressive empire that backed them up across Europe.
Battles ensue and Solina accompanies her mother and fighters to Camulodunam (“..built over the bones of an ancient capital, yet this city is nothing but a parasite, founded by Romans, who harnessed themselves to the banks of the Dark River, and now use its waters to ship out everything they have stolen”). Camulodunum is current day Colchester. As they progress, they bring down Romans settlements and mete out justice as they go, but their resistance proves to be a drop in the ocean. From London heading North, through Verulamium (St Albans), they put up fierce resistance but Gaius Suetonius Paulinus – Legate of Britain – soon shows what he is made of. Resistance is futile.
Solana is captured and heads with Paulinus to Rome, the city ruled by the iron and venal fist of Nero. She has to be pragmatic, so far from home, and is not altogether averse to forging some kind of relationship with Paulinus. She has to deal with a tremendous sense of loss after all the battles in England. She has to navigate the precarious hierarchy and vagaries of Rome, as it teeters and creeks under Nero’s leadership. She witnesses the fire that razes much of the city, the construction of the Domus Aurea, and has to withstand other tumultuous events, culminating in the Sack of Rome. She remains determined and headstrong, trying to maintain her equilibrium in this uncertain world.
I love learning things about history along the way and had no idea that the world salary (salarium) comes from the world for salt, as Roman wages were measured in the commodity. This is a fascinating period of history, which is well portrayed, and clearly the level of research that has gone into these combative and uneasy times is quite evident. A tremendous achievement.
This is an enjoyable, well paced and instructive read.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
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