Winter Quarters

Camul and Acco are young noble Gauls of the Pyrenees, content to accept Roman occupation for the benefits it brings, but fiercely proud of their superior civilisation. Until Acco brings on himself the curse of the Goddess, and the two are forced to escape her by joining the Roman army. From Julius Caesar’s campaigns on the Rhine to Rome, Greece, and finally the Empire’s eastern rim in the steppes of Russia, Camul recounts their adventures and mishaps, their impressions of the different customs, cults and cultures they meet, with an idealistic but also pragmatic tone. But the Goddess dogs them in every land except Judaea, and when Acco finally succumbs to her vengeance, Camul has to make his own pact with the gods – and goddesses – to survive . . . ‘Covers a remarkable amount of ground, and covers it convincingly’ Sunday Times ‘Few novelists can touch Alfred Duggan when it comes to re-creating remote corners of historical time and place’ Guardian