Today, Christina Courtenay visits me with a guest post about Roman baths in Bath which ties into her latest release, Shadows in the Spring. Further down, you can read my review, but first, let’s get to grips with Christina’s guest post!
Bath and the Roman baths
Doing research for a story can be extremely enjoyable, especially when you get to visit some of your favourite places. In my case, one of those is the city of Bath. Situated in a deep valley with the river Avon flowing through it, the town’s houses rise in tiers up the side of the hills. The old buildings are constructed of golden sandstone, so on a sunny day the entire city seems gilded. I love it!
As I was working on my latest novel, SHADOWS IN THE SPRING, I had to visit Bath several times in order to get my facts right (not a hardship!). There are some places I always like to visit when I’m there, my two favourite being the Roman baths and the adjacent Pump Room, which was so famous during Regency times. I never tire of seeing the baths and each time I go there I marvel at the Roman’s ingenuity and engineering skills. The amazing swimming pool that’s still there (called a natatio by them), the drains that still work after two thousand years, and the remains of the other beautiful amenities. When I decided to set a story in Roman Britain (Britannia) there was no doubt in my mind – the hero and heroine simply had to visit the famous baths of Aquae Sulis. (Although at the time my book is set, it wasn’t called that yet – simply the Aquae Calidae, or hot waters).
Britain’s only thermal spring, the site had been considered sacred long before the arrival of the Romans. The local goddess Sul, or Sulis, was said to dwell there and it was originally just a bubbling pool in the ground that overflowed into a stream to the river Avon. With a mist hanging over the water, it must have been an atmospheric place, awe-inspiring and special. As they respected native deities, the Romans would have been impressed and decided to build a bath complex there. Just to be on the safe side, they combined Sul with their own goddess Minerva, re-dedicating the spring to Sulis Minerva.
The buildings they erected were spectacular by the standards of the Britons, who had probably never seen their like. They lived in roundhouses which, although impressive in size sometimes, were usually only one storey high. The bath complex was a huge building, tall (the roof was 20 metres above the main pool) and imposing with a red-tiled roof. It housed not just the large swimming pool, but also an entrance hall, changing rooms, steam rooms, and three additional thermal baths, as well as an exercise area. The natatio was the largest, and was housed in a hall with a roof, high-level windows to give light to the bathers, and a walkway all around it with alcoves where you could sit and relax. These days the water is green with algae, but with a roof above to protect it from sunlight it would have been clear. The hot water still flows through the original Roman pipes and you can see it when you wander round the adjoining exhibition.
Next to the baths was a paved temple precinct, with an altar for sacrifices and a small but impressive temple dedicated to the goddess. It was in the classical style with steep stairs leading up to a porch with an ornate pediment. Parts of this pediment can be seen in the exhibition, with a plaque at its centre featuring a man with a beard and moustache. The sacred spring itself was in a corner of the temple courtyard, one side of it flush with the north wall of the bath building. It was open to the sky and lined with upright stone slabs.
Many visitors made offerings to the goddess, and also asked for her help with cursing their enemies. The so-called defixiones (curse tablets) were written on small pieces of lead, rolled up and cast into the spring, probably together with an offering like a coin or something else valuable. I couldn’t resist letting my hero and heroine do this and they hope the goddess will grant their wishes.
These days, the most enjoyable part of visiting Bath (to my mind anyway) is taking afternoon tea in the Pump Room. A delicious feast of tiny sandwiches, scones and pastries, served on a three-tier stand, together with the tea of your choice, it’s the perfect way to end the day. I felt that I had to allow my present-day characters this treat as well – I mean, why wouldn’t they take the opportunity if they were in Bath anyway? It’s very hard to resist!
Thank you, Christina! And now onto the book itself:
Universal buy link for SHADOWS IN THE SPRING: https://geni.us/SITS
Short blurb:-
Two souls bound together but lost in time. Until now.
It’s AD 80 and Duro of the Iceni tribe has escaped life as an enslaved gladiator and is back in Britannia with one thing on his mind: vengeance. What he didn’t expect was Gisel: a fierce Germanic woman whose spirit and beauty fascinate him. As love blossoms between them, they work together to complete his quest.
In present day Bath, Mackenna Jackson is nursing a broken heart, thanks to rockstar Blue Daniels. Luckily his former bandmate Jonah Miller is on hand to console her, although she doesn’t know he’s in love with her. Together, they explore the area, but memories they can’t quite explain flood them both. Is it a love enduring through millennia or just an illusion?
My Review
Settling down with a new book by Christina Courtenay is very much like partaking of afternoon tea at the Pump Room–relaxing and enjoyable. In Shadows in the Spring, the 1st century story featuring Duro and Gisel takes us on a trip through Roman Britain and along the way we attend slave auctions, spend our nights in inns, enjoy the amenities of bath houses while also handling a series of potential enemies. Duro has vengeance to extract – at the age of eight he watched as his mother and sister were violated, his mother murdered, before he was dragged off to be sold as a slave. He has never forgotten the perpetrator and now, as a free man (well…) he is back in Britain to confront him. Along the way, he encounters the fair Gisel who is in quite a precarious situation. Something sparks between them and suddenly Duro has a companion on his quest for revenge.
In the here and now, Mackenna Jackson and Jonah Miller have an as yet unexplored attraction to each other. Things are complicated by the fact that Mackenna was until recently the girlfriend of Jonah’s fellow band member Blue Daniels. It also doesn’t quite help that they both experience odd sensations of disassociation where the present fades away and is replaced by imagery from a very, very distant past.
As always, I enjoyed how Ms Courtenay handled the back and forth between past and present, those vague disturbing “memories” rattling both her present-day characters. I also rather liked the little twist offered by a sudden excavation in Jonah’s garden, but for me it is the story of Duro and Gisel that is the most captivating – probably a consequence of being the history nerd I am. All in all, Shadows in the Spring offers hours of romantic escapism laced with some of the harsher aspects of Britain under Roman rule. A perfect read for a sunny afternoon – or a rainy one :)
Author bio:
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former chairman of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. SHADOWS IN THE SPRING (dual time historical romance published by Headline Review 24th April 2025) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
Social Media:-
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