"Boudicca's Daughter" | Reviewed by Diane Lick

“Boudicca’s Daughter,” a historical fiction novel by Elodie Harper, is partially inspired by a statue in London. The statue depicts the Celtic Warrior Queen Boudicca in a chariot with her two daughters crouched behind her as they go into battle. The daughters names don’t appear in historical records.

As the title suggests, this is a fictional story of Boudicca’s daughter, Solina, embellished with historical facts from Britain and Rome in 60 CE. The tale is told from several viewpoints, but mainly from the viewpoint of Solina, the Iceni warrior princess, and from Paulinus, the Roman general in charge of the Roman legion during a revolt led by Boudicca.

The novel begins in the wild northern lands of Britain where the Iceni people have been the dominate tribe for an unknown number of years. Solina and her sister are undergoing rigorous warrior training, their training supervised by their mother, known as Catia, prior to the revolt, and aunt.

A short time after their training commences, Catia and her daughters are attacked and brutalized by a band of Romans. Vowing to regain their honor, Catia raises an army planning to drive the Roman Legion out of Britain. In actuality, the revolt was led by a woman and there were many women who fought alongside her as they tried to regain their life and freedom from the conquering Romans. The revolt is destructive, bloody, and is ultimately deadly for Iceni warriors. 

In the Roman surge of retaliation, Solina is captured by Paulinus and forced to travel with him as he pillages and burns her homeland. Solina is always plotting how to escape, but as the two get to know one another, Paulinus begins to recognize the warrior within her—to see Solina as more than just a captive. When he is recalled to Rome he takes her with him.

During the journey their attraction grows and Paulinus promises to always protect her.  When they reach Rome, General Paulinus must present all of the treasure he’s looted in Britain to Caesar. This includes Solina. Nero’s wife decides to keep this “savage” as one of her personal slaves.

The politics of Nero’s Rome are complex and Poulinus struggles to find ways to keep his promise of protection to Solina, who struggles with surviving the loss of everyone she has loved in a land where politics and behaviors are so different from her own.

  “Boudicca’s Daughter” is set almost 2000 years ago, the author’s historical research is so humanistic it gives the reader a good sense of the period without relating fact after fact. In creating her characters and giving them introspective qualities, Harper explores concepts of humanity in their choice of “fight or flight.”

Should we choose death to retain our honor or should we capitulate and live with survivor quilt? The Iceni revolt and massacres led by Boudicca began with the intention of restoring honor to women. Solina survived because her mother sent her away from the battlefield. In the Roman tradition it was considered honorable to take your own life rather than be shamed or captured. Many Romans fell on their swords rather be captured or imprisoned.

Humans have a primal instinct to survive but can one live in some degree of peace and happiness with the knowledge of what you have done, what you have lost, and who you have become? These are the questions Paulinus and Solina must answer.

Buy the book.