Gillian Bradshaw

Gillian Bradshaw is an American-born historical novelist who has lived in Britain for much of her adult life. She studied English and Classical Greek at the University of Michigan, where her first novel, Hawk of May, won a Hopwood Award for fiction. Her knowledge of classical literature and the ancient Mediterranean informs many of her novels, which combine careful historical research with political conflict, romance and characters attempting to find independence within restrictive societies. She has also written Arthurian fantasy, science fiction and contemporary novels involving scientific or medical themes.

Bradshaw’s historical fiction ranges widely across the ancient and early medieval worlds. The Beacon at Alexandria follows a woman who disguises herself as a eunuch to study medicine in the late Roman Empire, while The Sand-Reckoner reimagines the life of Archimedes during the conflict between Syracuse and Rome. Her other historical novels include The Bearkeeper’s Daughter, centred on the Byzantine empress Theodora; Island of Ghosts, about Sarmatian cavalrymen sent to Roman Britain; Cleopatra’s Heir, an alternative account of Caesarion’s fate; and Alchemy of Fire, set in sixth-century Constantinople. She also wrote the English Civil War novels London in Chains and A Corruptible Crown, as well as the Arthurian Down the Long Wind trilogy beginning with Hawk of May.