Insights | Alison Morton Author

Are the Roma Nova books feminist?

Yes, but ‘feminist-lite’. Let me explain…

First, where do I stand? I believe that women and men should be treated equally. We are different from each other biologically and studies have shown that we have broadly different aptitudes, strengths and approaches dating back well beyond the Stone Age to when we were evolving from […]

Collaborating authors

ALLI authors meet up at the London Book Fair April 2014

Writing is a solitary thing – it’s you, the writing medium and hard graft alone together. Your imagination/brain/mind/muse and the pen or keyboard are it. Perhaps you have a writing buddy, known sometimes as a critique partner, or belong to a writers’ […]

So what does SUCCESSIO mean to me?

Writing a book is hard work but a privilege. Sitting down, slogging away, oblivious to neck and shoulders becoming rigid, you ignore the blurring eyes, the headache creeping up over the crown of your head because you are lost in the imaginary country of your book’s world.

Your characters smell the pines, shiver at the […]

Tough heroines

“Boadicea Haranguing the Britons” by John Opie (1761-1807)

‘Tough’, ‘feisty’, ‘kick-ass’ – clichés, ironic or signposts? And, provocative question, would you apply them to men? Perhaps the first one and possibly the third, but I can’t remember reading about a ‘feisty hero’.

That aside, how do you recognise a tough heroine? Boudica, queen […]

Roman taxing times

As I sit down to fill in my tax return, I’m looking for any distraction. I wondered how the ancient Romans were taxed. Today we have income tax, company/corporation tax, sales taxes/VAT, excise duties (road fund licence (UK), alcohol, cigarettes), local taxation, inheritance tax, to name but a few. But how similar are our taxes […]