This story is set in AD 57. Much of Britannia has been under Roman occupation for over ten years, with key areas in the south and east administered as vassal states, where the tribes pay costly tithes to the Emperor in return for the right to continue living on their own lands. On the sacred isle of Mona, the Boudica or Bringer of Victory as Breaca has long been hailed, now knows for certain that her lover, Caradoc - betrayed, captured and kept hostage in Rome - will never return to her. She decides to leave Mona where she and her warriors have been waging a guerilla war, and to take the fight to the Eceni heartland where it is needed most. With her are her children, Cunomar and Grainne, and her best friend from childhood, ex-lover and dreamer, Airmid. But the once proud Eceni are a downtrodden and defeated people who are forbidden on pain of death to worship their old gods, and now scrape a living from the once fertile land. Across the sea in Hibernia, Breaca's half-brother Ban, is struggling to make peace with his fractured past. Soon, provoked by Roman aggression, he will sail to Britain to protect Mona, and from there he will go to Camulodinum, unite with his sister he and Breaca will face down the might of Rome in the bloodiest revolt the western world has ever known.

Author Biography

Manda Scott is a veterinary surgeon, writer and climber. Born and educated in Scotland, she now lives in Suffolk with two horses, two lurchers and too many cats. Manda Scott first made her name as a crime writer. Her debut novel, Hen's Teeth, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize. Her subsequent novels are Night Mares, Stronger than Death and No Good Deed, for which she was hailed as 'one of Britain's most important crime writers'. Dreaming the Eagle and Dreaming the Bull, the first and second books in the Boudica series, are also published by Bantam Books and the fourth book, Dreaming the Serpent Spear, by Bantam Press. For more information on Manda Scott and her books, visit her website at wwww.mandascott.co.uk