Research « Alison Morton's Thrillers

Reasons for the fall of Rome?

‘Destruction’ by Thomas Cole, painted 1833–1836, part of a series ‘The Course of Empire’

Discussion of the the reasons for the ‘fall’ of the Western Roman Empire will go on forever and everybody will have their pet one. The classic book is The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, […]

Historical research – it's a hard road

Roman relief depicting a travelling wagon (raeda) from a tomb from Virunum, Zollfeld, Austria

Drafting my new Roma Nova story set in the fourth century is slow, glacially slow at times. I know Roma Nova, I know its ‘history’, but when you get down to the nitty gritty of writing in a time […]

Conquest, occupation, resistance, liberation

Seeing this title, many people immediately think of the Second World War in Europe – the fall of France in 1940, the harsh German occupation, the bravery of the resistance and the Allied liberation in 1944/45. In the Far East, it was as brutal, but in a different context. Life under occupation for most people […]