Gillian Bradshaw Popular Books

Gillian Bradshaw Biography & Facts

Gillian Marucha Bradshaw (born May 14, 1956) is an American writer of historical fiction, historical fantasy, children's literature, science fiction, and contemporary science-based novels, who lives in Britain. Her serious historical novels are often set in classical antiquity — Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Byzantine Empire, Saka and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Imperial Rome, Sub-Roman Britain and Roman Britain. She has also written two novels set in the English Civil War. Biography Gillian Bradshaw was born in Falls Church, Virginia, and spent part of her youth in Santiago, Chile. She attended the University of Michigan, where she won the Phillips Prize for Classical Greek in 1975 and 1977, as well as the Hopwood Prize for fiction for her first novel, Hawk of May. She went on to advanced study at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied Classical philology. Hawk of May was published while she was preparing for University of Cambridge exams. Bradshaw decided to stay in Cambridge for another year to write another novel and think about what to do for a career. However, while there, she discovered she could live on her income as a novelist, and she has been writing novels ever since. She also met her husband, who was completing his doctorate in physics. Bradshaw and her husband, British Mathematical physics professor (and 2012 Ig Nobel Prize winner) Robin Ball, have four children. She says of herself, "I am an enthusiast for classical antiquity, and love roaming about Graeco-Roman ruins on holiday. The rest of the family has a huge exposure to hypocausts and hippodromes. They have sometimes protested ('Not another Roman ruin!') but mostly they've quite enjoyed it." Bradshaw's physicist husband provided one aspect of her portrayal of Archimedes in her novel The Sand-Reckoner. But as she states in the afterword, her portrayal is based on the ancient sources on Archimedes and not on any living person such as the theoretical physicists she knows. Bradshaw has been a judge in the Institute of Physics Paperclip Physics competition, and her contemporary and historical novels with a scientific background show a deep interest in human responses to scientific discoveries. Works 1980–1990 Bradshaw's first published novels were the Arthurian historical fantasy trilogy, Down the Long Wind. These three young adult books — Hawk of May, Kingdom of Summer, and In Winter's Shadow — were released between 1980 and 1982. Set in Sub-Roman Britain, the trilogy's main character is Gwalchmai (Gawain), who must choose between supporting his evil mother Morgawse or his maternal uncle King Arthur. The title Down the Long Wind is taken from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King: "And fainter onward, like wild birds that change Their season in the night and wail their way From cloud to cloud, down the long wind the dream Shrilled; but in going mingled with dim cries." Bradshaw next began writing adult historical fiction. Her 1986 novel, The Beacon at Alexandria, features Charis of Ephesus, a female doctor cross-dressing as a eunuch in 4th century Alexandria, in Roman Egypt. The Bearkeeper's Daughter tells the story of Theodora, empress consort of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. Theodora was born into the lowest class of Byzantine society, and was the daughter of Acacius, a bearkeeper for the circus. Imperial Purple (UK title: The Colour of Power), released in 1988, features Demetrias of Tyre, a woman who was born into slavery but who is becoming a skilled weaver. The plot focuses on her discovery of a plot to depose Theodosius II and remove from power his sister Pulcheria. In 1990 Bradshaw wrote Horses of Heaven, about a marriage alliance between the Saka Kingdom of Ferghana and the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. The marriage of King Mauakes and Princess Heliokleia occurs around 140 BC, and brings many changes at court. 1991–2000 Bradshaw next turned to writing three children's books — starting with two linked tales involving Ancient Egypt, The Dragon and the Thief in 1991 and The Land of Gold in 1992. The latter features a Nubian princess who survives her parents' murder, and attempts to regain her throne with the assistance of the dragon Hathor. These two books were followed by Beyond the North Wind (1993). The novel features a young magician assigned by Apollo to protect a tribe of griffins from a hostile queen. The title is again a reference to an earlier work, in this that of case Aristeas of Proconnesus, a 7th-century BC Greek, who reported that the griffins lived in Scythia, near the cave of Boreas, the North Wind. The Dragon and the Thief, The Land of Gold, and Beyond the North Wind all began as stories for the pleasure of her own children. Bradshaw then continued her works of serious adult historical fiction with Island of Ghosts in 1998. The novel tells the story of Ariantes, one of 8,000 Sarmatians in military service to Marcus Aurelius. In 2000 she wrote her first science fiction novel, The Wrong Reflection, about an amnesiac who finds his given identity of "Paul Anderson" to be a fabrication. This was followed by historical novel The Sand-Reckoner, a telling of the story of Archimedes of Syracuse, Italy, from his studies at the Library of Alexandria to his involvement in the Second Punic War (218 – 202 BC). 2001–present In 2001, Bradshaw published her second science fiction novel, Dangerous Notes. It features Valeria Thornham, a young classical guitarist and composer whose brain was implanted with cloned stem cells in childhood after an accident. She is considered a potential psychotic and is arrested and detained at a mental research facility, where she is threatened with the prospect of undergoing surgery to remove the part of her brain that is responsible for her extraordinary musical talent. Bradshaw's 2001 historical novel The Wolf Hunt was based on Marie de France's Breton lai Bisclavret, and features Marie Penthive of Chalendrey, a Norman kidnapped and taken to the Duchy of Brittany. Marie then becomes involved in the life of the late 11th-century Duchy's court and its plots. Her next historical novel, Cleopatra's Heir (2002) tells the tale of Caesarion, son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra VII of Egypt, who managed to escape execution at the order of his adoptive brother Caesar Augustus. The young man is then forced in a life of poverty in his new environment, the Roman Empire. In 2002 Bradshaw also wrote a short story set in Ancient Egypt, The Justice of Isis, taking place in Alexandria in 58 BCE, during the reign of Ptolemy XII. It was published in The Mammoth Book of Egyptian Whodunits. This short story was also published in Czech as Esetina spravedlnost in 2004. This was followed by another historical novel, Render Unto Caesar (2003), featuring Hermogenes, a Roman citizen of Greek origin, meeting prejudice in the city of Rome when he tries to collect a debt, and his body guard, "Cantabra", a former gladiatrix, originally from Cantabria. In 2003, Bradshaw also wro.... Discover the Gillian Bradshaw popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gillian Bradshaw books.

Best Seller Gillian Bradshaw Books of 2024

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    Jon Hill

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    Inception of Gold

    Lexy Timms

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    His Own Heaven

    Jennie Kew

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    Lexy Timms

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    The Odyssey

    Homer

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    Ben Leighton

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    Emily Brontë

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    Holy Bible

    The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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    Lexy Timms

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    Lexy Timms

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    Ivy Thorn

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    The Art of War

    Sun Tzu

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    Michael Gordon

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    Christmas in Sweetbriar Cove

    Melody Grace

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    Dream Psychology

    Sigmund Freud

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    Meditations

    Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius

    Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161–180 CE, setting forth his ideas on Stoic philosophy.

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    The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

    Arthur Conan Doyle

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    Zoey Locke

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    Charles Dickens

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    Lexy Timms

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    Louisa May Alcott

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    Carrie Lomax

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    F. Scott Fitzgerald

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    David J Antocci

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    Alexandre Dumas

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    Maia Ross

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    Sierra Cross

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    The Holy Bible - King James Version

    King James

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    Kate Meader

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    The Honeymoon Homicide

    J. R. Mathis & Susan Mathis

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    L. Frank Baum

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    Greg Habstritt & Napoleon Hill

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    Claire Raye

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    School of Potential

    W.J. May

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    The Icing on the Cake

    Linda Seed

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    Betty Rowlands

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    The Next Girl

    Carla Kovach

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    Kathryn Shay

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    Caught Up with the Captain

    Kait Nolan

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    Law of Attraction

    Jordan Hollis

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    The Cupcake Cottage

    Jean Oram

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    Nothing to Hide

    Scarlett Finn

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