I am delighted to have Christina with a guest post todayĀ ~ thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources for organizing.
Follow my fellow bloggers on the tour ā¤µ
Genre: Dual time historical romance
Publication Date: April 24, 2025
Publisher: Headline Review
Standalone Sequel to Shadows in the Ashes
Estimated Page Count – 350
Author Content Warning: A couple of sex scenes (not too graphic), some violence ā hero kills two villains (in a fair fight)
Butser Ancient Farm ā Roundhouses
There is no better research tool for an author of historical novels than reconstructed buildings of the era youāre writing about. They allow you to experience dwellings from the past in a visceral and tactile manner, and I love sitting inside them soaking up the atmosphere. The smells, the sounds, the feel of the building materials ā itās truly invaluable when writing descriptions of the charactersā homes later. So I make it my mission to try and visit such sites as often as possible.
My latest story SHADOWS IN THE ASHES features a Celtic hero from Roman age Britain (Britannia), so I needed to know how his tribe, the Iceni, would have lived. This entailed a visit to Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire in the south of the UK, and very enjoyable it was too! Butser Ancient Farm is an open-air experimental archaeology museum and research centre, with reconstructed buildings from various eras. These include a Roman villa and garden, a Celtic village consisting of different size roundhouses, a Stone Age farm, and two Saxon halls. Theyāve all been built using authentic methods and materials, as far as the archaeologists can determine those, and the results are stunning.
(Link to Butser Ancient Farm website: https://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/ )
My heroās family would have lived in Celtic roundhouses, so I was particularly interested in those. Iād never been inside one before and it was an amazing experience. Some were small and cosy, just big enough for a family of four or to be used as a workshop or storage hut of some sort. Others were larger and could have housed a bigger group of people. At the centre of the reconstructed Celtic village, however, was an absolutely massive roundhouse that was truly awesome, and one which I immediately wanted to include in my story.
It measured 50 ft (15 metres) in diameter and was 30 ft (9 metres) high at the tallest point. When you went inside through double doors you felt suddenly very small under the soaring conical roof. The floor consisted of packed earth that was very hard and a bit uneven. In the centre of the roundhouse was a huge hearth with a sort of iron frame around it from which to hang cooking pots. The smoke from the fire was rising gently towards the roof and as there was no chimney, it had to find its way out through the thatch. A guide told me that this helped keep birds away from the roof which was good, otherwise they might pull the thatch apart looking for insects and thus destroy it.
A circle of upright posts kept the roof up and could potentially divide the edges of the room into alcoves. I assumed there would have been some sort of benches there for sleeping on, and the inhabitants could have hung curtains or drapes to give a little bit of privacy. Hewn logs covered in animal furs encircled the hearth for people to sit on of an evening, perhaps to eat their meals and tell tales around the fire. They werenāt too close though, as you wouldnāt want to breathe in a lot of smoke. The smell of smoke did hit you at first as you entered, but after a while you got used to it. Despite the impressive size of the building, it was cosy and warm, and I could imagine feeling safe and protected in there on a cold or rainy night.
I visited the other buildings at Butser as well since you never know when that knowledge can come in useful. In fact, I had the Roman villa at the back of my mind when writing SHADOWS IN THE SPRING as the heroās best friend lives in just such a house. I did plan for my hero to visit, but in the end that scene didnāt make it onto the page. Iām sure my notes wonāt be wasted, though, and I might even
write that as a bonus scene one day.
The two Saxon halls were also extremely useful as I needed them for the book Iām working on now, so all in all, it was a wonderfully productive visit. If youāre ever in the vicinity, I can heartily recommend you to pop in and have a look around ā itās fascinating!
Universal buy link for SHADOWS IN THE SPRING: https://geni.us/SITS
Short blurb:-
Two souls bound together but lost in time. Until now.
Itās AD 80 and Duro of the Iceni tribe has escaped life as an enslaved gladiator and is back in Britannia with one thing on his mind: vengeance. What he didnāt expect was Gisel: a fierce Germanic woman whose spirit and beauty fascinate him. As love blossoms between them, they work together to complete his quest.
In present day Bath, Mackenna Jackson is nursing a broken heart, thanks to rockstar Blue Daniels. Luckily his former bandmate Jonah Miller is on hand to console her, although she doesnāt know heās in love with her. Together, they explore the area, but memories they canāt quite explain flood them both. Is it a love enduring through millennia or just an illusion?
Author bio:
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden ā hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former chairman and of the UKās Romantic Novelistsā Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. SHADOWS IN THE SPRING (dual time historical romance published by Headline Review 24th April 2025) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
Social Media:-
Website ā http://www.christinacourtenay.com
Facebook ā https://www.facebook.com/christinacourtenayauthor?fref=ts
Twitter/X ā @PiaCCourtenay – https://twitter.com/PiaCCourtenay
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