Power and Stone

After a long journey from Rome with their mother Claudia, Marcus and Telemachus rejoin their father Gaius, the commander of a fort on Hadrian's wall. The local tribe, the Brigante, appears to be friendly but the feelings of the conquered are not straightforward and Gaius is concerned that as newcomers, the boys may not appreciate possible dangers. This is an ambitious first novel taking in themes of cultural clash, imperial power, rites of passage and the nature of friendship. Leader packs in historical information from the design of an altar to phallic graffiti that was believed to bring luck to how to pronounce Cartimandua (the name of a Brigantian queen) and the reader is left in no doubt that they are in the hands of an enthusiast for the period. With such a plethora of facts it is hard, however, to relax into a sense of the place in which the dramas that attend Leader's rather stiffly drawn characters unfold. There is enough here, however, to suggest that Leader will gain in craft and passion as she continues on from this agreeable and very informative debut.