Manda Scott at Tangled Web UK

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Manda Scott - Page 1

The Crystal Skull

01 Jan 08

Boudica: Dreaming the Serpent Spear

Boudica: Dreaming the Hound

Boudica: Dreaming the Bull

Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle

About the Author

Bibliography

Hardback
Bantam (2008)

The Crystal Skull
The end of the World starts Now

‘It’s a lump of rock, Stella; nothing more. No stone is worth dying for.’

Except it’s not just a lump of rock. It’s a life-sized blue crystal skull made by the Maya to save the world from ruin; a sapphire so perfect, so powerful, that men down the ages have killed to own or destroy it.
Cedric Owen, the skull’s last Keeper, died that it might keep its secret for the next four centuries. Now Stella has found it, and someone has already tried to kill her. Like the skull-keepers of old, she and her partner, Kit, are being hunted - but by whom?
The Mayan prophecies say that if the thirteen skulls already in existence are not reunited, the world will end on 21 December 2012. Four times already, life on earth has been destroyed: by flood and fire, quake and storm. The fifth age ends in a destruction of man’s making, and there is only one chance to avert it.
Facing an increasingly implacable enemy, Stella and Kit struggle to decode the Owen diaries. Their search takes them from the intellectual rigour of Cambridge University to the untamed wildness of England’s prehistoric stone circles.
Both know that time is against them and they have only days - hours - left to uncover the secret that may yet save the world.

First British Edition Bantam (2006)

Boudica: Dreaming the Serpent Spear
AD 60: The flame of rebellion that has been smouldering for twenty years of Roman occupation has flared into a conflagration that will consume the land and all who live in it.
There is no going back. The Boudica has been flogged and her daughters raped, and her son has burned a Roman watchtower in an act of blatant insurgency.
This is the time to act: the Roman governor has marched his legions west to destroy the druidic stronghold of Mona, leaving his capital and a vital seaport hopelessly undefended in the face of twenty thousand warriors aching for vengeance.
But to crush the legions for all time, Boudica must do more than lead her army in the greatest rebellion Britain has ever known. She must find healing for herself, for the land - and for Graine, her eight-year-old daughter, who has taken refuge on Mona.
Will she ever be fit to lead her war host to victory? And if not, who will unite it?
Colchester is burning and the Romans have been driven out of London. Amidst fire and bloody revolution, the Boudica and those around her must find what matters, now and for all time.
Dreaming the Serpent Spear is the final novel in Manda Scott’s bestselling Boudica series.
Praise for the bestselling Boudica series
Dreaming the Eagle
`What’s amazing to me about this tale of Boudica is the pitch-perfect fluency with which Manda Scott brings it forth. It’s as if she were an eyewitness recounting real events that she really saw and really participated in. All of it is utterly convincing and compelling ... A stunning feat of the imagination and an absolute must-read for lovers of historical fiction.’ Steven Pressfield
`Boudica is a staggeringly imaginative invocation of Britain’s secret history. Manda Scott has created a fictional universe all her own, but close enough to our reality for it both to warm and break our hearts. Breathtakingly good, it reveals the best and worst in all of us.’ Val McDermid
`A powerful novel alive with love, deceit, wisdom and the heroics of humanity.’ Jean Auel
`An extraordinary work combining history and imagination. It’s exciting and intriguing, taking you into a world where unbelievable danger and cruelty sit side by side with magic, spirituality and profound human relationships. At times I was moved to tears, at others, immensely proud to be bred from a tradition that made warriors of women.’ Jenni Murray, Woman’s Hour
`It looks as if we have a new series to rival The Lord of the Rings in its appeal. Actually, I think it will be better. Scott doesn’t mess about with the elves. And her druids are really scary.’ Jane Jakeman, Scotland On Sunday
Dreaming The Bull
`One of the boldest recent adventures in historical fiction ... Scott celebrates the mystic matriarchy of the British tribe with lush lyricism and story-weaving panache.’ Independent
‘A cry for freedom cloaked in lyrical and sensitive prose.’ Oxford Times
Dreaming The Hound
`The richness of colour and vibrancy of style have become the hallmarks of Scott’s ambitious series.’ Yorkshire Evening Post
`Full of imaginative invention, adventure and compelling descriptive prose, reminiscent of Dorothy Dunnett’s writing. The best book I have read in a long time.’ Woman’s Weekly

Boudica: Dreaming the Hound
AD 57. Much of Britannia has been under Roman occupation for over ten years, with key areas in the south and east administered as vassal states, where the tribes pay costly tithes to the Emperor in return for the right to continue living on their own lands. On the sacred isle of Mona, the Boudica or Bringer of Victory as Breaca has long been hailed, now knows for certain that her lover, Caradoc - betrayed, captured and kept hostage in Rome - will never return to her. She decides to leave Mona where she and her warriors have been waging a guerilla war, and to take the fight to the Eceni heartland where it is needed most. With her are her children, Cunomar and Grainne, and her best friend from childhood, ex-lover and dreamer, Airmid. But the once proud Eceni are a downtrodden and defeated people who are forbidden on pain of death to worship their old gods, and now scrape a living from the once fertile land. Across the sea in Hibernia, Breaca's half-brother Ban, is struggling to make peace with his fractured past. Soon, provoked by Roman aggression, he will sail to Britain to protect Mona, and from there he will go to Camulodinum, unite with his sister he and Breaca will face down the might of Rome in the bloodiest revolt the western world has ever known.

First British Edition Bantam (2004)

Boudica: Dreaming the Bull
In AD 60, Breaca, war leader of the Eceni and hailed as Boudica, Bringer of Victory, led the native Celtic tribes in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. It was the culmination of nearly twenty years of resistance against an occupying force that sought to crush a vibrant, complex civilization and replace it with the laws, taxes and slavery of the Roman Empire.
Dreaming the Bull begins in AD 47 as Boudica and her warriors continue their hard-fought resistance against the Roman legions occupying Britannia. Set against her is Julius Valerius, an officer in the auxiliary cavalry, whose increasing brutality in the service of his god and emperor can never shield him from the ghosts of his past.
Caught in the middle are two children, pawns in a game of unthinkable savagery, while in the heart of Rome, the emperor Claudius and his power-crazed wife hold lives in their hands.
This is a heart-stopping story of war and of peace; of love, passion and betrayal; of druids and warring gods, where each life is sacred and each death even more so; and where Boudica and the man who calls himself Julius Valerius learn the terrible distances they must travel to fulfil their own destinies.
Dreaming the Bull is the second novel in the bestselling Boudica series.

Paperback - Bantam (2004)

First British Edition Bantam (2003)

Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle
In AD 60, Boudica, war leader of the Eceni, led her people in a final bloody revolt against the occupying armies of Rome. It was the culmination of nearly twenty years of resistance against an occupying force that sought to crush a vibrant, complex civilization and replace it with the laws, taxes and slavery of the Roman Empire.
Dreaming the Eagle recreates the roots of a story so powerful its impact has survived down the ages. This gloriously imagined epic recounts the growth to adulthood of Breaca, who at twelve kills her first warrior, and her sensitive, skilful half-brother Ban, who carries with him a vision of the future that may save his people.
This is the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Roman invasion: a world of druids and dreamers and the magic of the gods; where horses and hounds and the landscape itself become characters in their own right; where warriors fight for honour as much as victory. Above all, it is a world of passion and courage and spectacular, heartfelt heroism pitched against overwhelming odds.
Dreaming the Eagle is the first part of the trilogy on the life of Boudica.

About The Author
Born and brought up in Glasgow, Manda Scott was surrounded by wildlife as a child. Her mother worked for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and when she was three Manda knew she wanted to become a farmer. Manda trained at the Glasgow Veterinary School and in 1986 moved to Newmarket to work with horses, a passion she had held since, at the age of 12 she rose to her parents challenge that she could only have her own pony if she contributed to its upkeep and awoke at 6.30 am six days a week to deliver milk for the local farmer. She earnt £4 a week and saved enough to buy a palomino pony mare, discovering to her delight that the mare was also pregnant. Three months after the foal was born she died of pneumonia. Manda was devastated, 'Actually, I was suicidal, which is one of the reasons that I know how to write about it. But it was also the point where I decided I was going into stud medicine.'
In Newmarket Manda worked with one of the best equipped practises in the country, in a community composed of 6,000 people and 16,000 horses. She started to write there, her first project a veterinary ER for television which was followed by the more successful tv series, 'Animal House'. Her first novel, Hen's Teeth, was published to critical acclaim in 1997. Hailed by Fay Weldon as 'a new voice for a new world', Hen's Teeth was the only book by a UK author to be shortlisted for the 1997 Orange Prize..
Passionate still about her veterinary work, Manda Scott practises on a part-time basis in order to allow more time for her writing. She specialises in acupuncture on small and exotic animals and has recently returned from a period of work at University College, Dublin.

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Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.

The Crystal Skull (Bantam, 2008) Jan 08

Boudica: Dreaming the Serpent Spear (Bantam, 2006)

Boudica: Dreaming the Hound (Bantam, 2005) Bantam Pbk Feb 06

Boudica: Dreaming the Bull (Bantam, 2004)

Boudica: Dreaming the Eagle (Bantam, 2003) Bantam Pbk Feb 04

No Good Deed (Headline Feature, 2001) Headline Pbk Jan 02

Stronger Than Death (Headline, 1999) Headline Pbk May 00

Night Mares (Headline, 1998) Collins Crime Nov 98 Headline Pbk May 99 (Kellen Stewart)

Hen's Teeth (Women's Press Pbk, 1996) (Kellen Stewart)