Research | Alison Morton Author

Meet David Ebsworth's Napoleonic women warriors

A welcome return visit from my writing friend David Ebsworth telling us about his next project …

1815. The 200th anniversary is looming. A passion for the Napoleonic period is tugging at my writing hand. Yes, I thought, my next one will be about Waterloo. But from what angle?

I began looking for the […]

Meet Ruth Downie - historical truth and donkey poo

Ruth Downie read too much Jane Austen at university, emerged with an English degree and a plan to get married and live happily ever after. As a backup she learned typing and shorthand, in the mistaken beliefs that people would always need secretaries and that she might be quite good at it. Finally escaping into […]

Writing people or writing stuff?

Talking online with some colleagues about historical and alternative historical writing, the conversation inevitably turned to research and how it was woven in or dripped into the story. We all declaimed against the dreaded info dump when the poor reader gets a JCB bucket size load of history book content poured on them. But how […]

Trust, betrayal and the Roman way

Tarpeian Rock, site of execution of traitors in Ancient Rome

Betrayal, treachery, treason, deceit, perfidy – all names for the calculated violation of trust.

Trust is something we build up gradually, firstly, in our parents and carers, then teachers, friends, mentors, colleagues, in lovers and partners, in a organisation, an ideal, a country. […]

What’s in a (Roman) name?

Me and G.J.Caesar

An awful lot!

This is only a brief introduction, but hold on tight because this may seem a little confusing…

Even in the earliest times, Romans used a different system of names from most other European and Mediterranean countries. They used two names, one of which became a hereditary surname. […]