I've never come across this author before, but a quick Amazon search brought up what look like a few fascinating historical/fantasy novels by her, too. Like Cleopatra's Heir and The Wolf Hunt. Have you read those?
Labby, those are definitely worth reading! I loved "Cleopatra's Heir", and "The Wolf Hunt", and another one I'd recommend is "The Sand-Reckoner", about Archimedes.
"Island of Ghosts" is set in Northern Britain at Hadrian's Wall, where a troop of Sarmatians are sent (long story, it's basically because they lost a war and they're conscripted into Roman service and set hundreds of miles away from their homeland.)
"The Beacon At Alexandria" is a fascinating glimpse of Alexandria at the time of Athanasius:
"When Charis learns that her father has betrothed her to the hated Roman governor Festinus, she enlists the aid of her brother and flees to Alexandria. There, disguised as a eunuch, she begins to study Hippocratic medicine under the tutelage of a patient Jewish physician. The young woman excels as a healer and her fame spreads. Political intrigues force her to frontier outposts of the Roman Empire where she practices as an army doctor. She succeeds in maintaining her disguise until she is captured and held prisoner by the Goths during their uprising against the Romans. Bradshaw has superbly re-created the political, social, and intellectual climate of the 4th century A.D. and the attitudes towards woman and medicine in this excellent work."
"Imperial Purple" - how did they dye fabric that color back in ancient times? Well, they extracted the dye from the murex snail - expensive as all get-out, so only the Emperors could afford it. But someone is planning a coup d'etat, and needs to have that purple cloak to make a good show...
Gillian Bradshaw is one of my favorite authors. I like her historical fiction better than her fiction set in the present time, but that's just me.
