I mentioned George Shipway (1908-1982) a few weeks back as an accurate historical novelist. He had ten novels from 1968 to 1979. Three novels about Norman England, two novels about King Agamemnon, two Indian Raj novels, two political satire books, and Imperial Governor.

Shipway served in the Anglo-Indian Army in the cavalry until 1946. Wallace Breem was another soldier turned writer who was in India. Get yourself a copy of his Eagle in the Snow.

Imperial Governor (1968) was his first novel. It is written in the first person in the form of a memoir by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, former governor of Britain. The novel starts with Suetonius in Lower Germany called to Rome in autumn 59 A.D. There, he is informed he is to be the new governor of Britain. Things are not well in that relatively new province. It is costing more than it is bringing in. Governors don’t last long as they keep dying. Suetonius is to get mines producing (along with slaves to do the work) to balance the sheets. Rome always went where metals could be found.

Things in Britain are unsettled. What is now Wales is a source of constant troubles with unconquered tribes raiding into Roman territory. Things in what is now Norfolk are at a simmer with the Iceni and a dying king. Nero wants to annex that territory directly as a money grab. The Procurator (tax collector) is incompetent and venal. Roman Britain has four legions at this time. The II Augustus Legion is passive under a lazy legate on the frontier with the very warlike Silures. The north inhabited by the Brigantes under Queen Cartimandua could erupt at any moment.

Suetonius has to carefully balance a tense situation. He first has a combined arms operation against the Silures in southern Wales to bring them to heel. Then he switches to the north taking on the Deceangli and Ordovices. Druids from the island of Mona/Anglesey are stirring up trouble. Suetonius has a naval landing operation to wipe out the druids on Mona.

Then he gets word that Queen Boudicca of the Iceni is in open revolt after the procurator has her flogged and her daughters raped. Other British tribes join in her revolt. Boudicca burns Colchester, St. Albans, London, and mauled the IX Hispana Legion.

Suetonius retreated to Silchester with two legions. The cowardly commander of the II Augusta refused orders to join him. He confronts Boudicca’s 80,000 on the field of his own choosing decisively defeating Boudicca. Suetonius sells the Trinovantes into slaverl and embarks on extermination of the Iceni. This gets him in to trouble with a new procurator who is looking for slaves to work the mines. Suetonius is recalled to Rome though he saved the province.

This is my favorite George Shipway novel to date. There is a growing sense of tension as Suetonius balances his forces between various simultaneous threats. Boudicca is characterized as a not very feminine and rather brutish. Queen Cartimandua is one of the most interesting characters in the novel.

Shipway does make Suetonius a sympathetic character though the Roman Empire was brutal in its expansionist phase. Breem probably had experience dealing with Pashtuns on the North-West Frontier while in the Anglo-Indian Army that he puts to use in this novel.

Imperial Governor is currently available in both book and e-book form.