The Savage Isle

by Michael Arnold Book 1 in the Savage Isle series.

First published 2025

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4.1(158)

Britannia, AD 42. The death of Cunobeline ends a political balance that had restrained direct Roman intervention. His heirs Togodumnus and Caratacus reject accommodation with the empire and compete for authority among divided British tribes. Cullen, an orphan of the Atrebates, is captured during a Catuvellauni raid and must survive among the people who destroyed his home while avoiding the hostility of their chief druid.

Cullen’s search for status and belonging unfolds as tribal leaders bargain, raid and prepare for a conflict few fully understand. Across the Narrow Sea, Claudius assembles the legions that will invade in the following year. The novel presents the Roman conquest first from within Iron Age Britain, making Cullen’s coming of age inseparable from the collapse of Cunobeline’s kingdom and the choices that leave the island exposed to imperial war.