Geraint Jones - Blood Forest

Arminius is one of my favourite characters in history. He was born into German nobility, raised in Rome, and served with distinction in the Roman army. Varus was enamoured with the man, which seems to have directly contributed to his demise. There is no record as to why Arminius turned on Rome, but I have explained my own theory in this book. There was no unified nation or notion of Germany at the time, but certainly the Germanic tribes held common ground and tongues, and some men would have viewed Rome’s growing power in the region as an act of attempted domination rather than assimilation. Arminius was one of these men, and his victory would see him remembered in his homeland as a hero who defied the invader.

Prefect Caeonius is remembered in the classical texts for marshalling the army after the suicide of Varus and many of his staff officers. I admire the man’s courage, and could just as well imagine him giving encouragement to a young soldier at Rourke’s Drift: ‘Hitch, do your tunic up.’

Felix and his section mates were born in my imagination, but their personalities and traits are drawn from the soldiers that I was privileged to serve alongside. Reading the accounts of infantrymen at war has always fascinated me, and I am stuck in my belief that soldiers are soldiers, regardless of the uniform or era. There’s something in our blood that makes us do the things we do, and say the things we say, and I think that Felix would have been just as at home in Helmand province as he would have been in Germany. Very at home actually, as by strange coincidence, the name of my patrol base in Afghanistan was Minden – I’m not lying!

It is precisely because no account of the Roman rank and file exist that I wanted to write from their perspective. The leaders of the time are well documented in fact and fiction, but a commander is only as good as the men who execute his orders. For the soldier, there is no big picture to a battle. They do not see the masterstrokes, or the turning points. They see only their own struggle for survival, and glory for their leaders comes when enough soldiers are triumphant in their own microcosms of battle.

Further to this point, I wanted to explore in Blood Forest the mental aspect that conflict has upon the soldier. We are only just beginning to understand the mental scars of war, and I do not believe that Rome’s soldiers would have been easily shrugging off the loss of their comrades, or the acts that they were forced to witness and endure.

Though I believe I have an understanding of how soldiers think and behave, I consider it important to point out that I am a storyteller and not a historian. Rome’s legions and their battles have gifted me the setting in which to place Felix and his comrades, but this book and the ones that will follow are not intended to be definitive in their detail. I humbly piggyback on academic experts, and whilst I endeavour to be as accurate as possible, there are times where I feel that story trumps fact, and that the beautiful power of artistic licence can be deployed. I am mindful too that no one alive today has lived through the days of the early Roman Empire, and that means – in my mind at least – that there are no definitive answers. If there are lessons to be drawn from Blood Forest , then I hope that it is through metaphor, and my deep belief that the character of the soldier transcends time.

As I’ve already alluded to, I could not have completed this novel without the work of historians and academics. For anyone interested in learning more about this era or battle I strongly recommend Michael McNally’s Teutoburg Forest AD 9, the aforementioned Rome’s Greatest Defeat and the definitive Legions of Rome, by Stephen Dando-Collins. All were ever-present during the writing of Blood Forest, but that being said, any mistakes are my own. Feel free to tweet them to me, and I’ll get down on my face and give you press-ups.

The loss of three legions is a brutal blow for Rome, but the Empire is not known for its forgiveness. With Arminius a threat, and Felix a slave, there’s a lot more blood to shed.

I could not have written about soldiers without having served with them, and so first thanks goes to the men and women that shivered beside me in training areas, sweated with me in the desert, and listened patiently to my ideas during sentry duty in the early hours. Above all that, thank you for having my back and bringing me home.

I would not be where I am in life without my parents and family. They gave me confidence to take on any challenge, inspired me to travel the world, and supported me no matter what my decisions. I can’t imagine that my choice of careers as soldier and writer ever gave my mother a sound night’s sleep, but she is responsible for giving me my passion for history and books, and without her Blood Forest would never have happened.

Huge thanks to the entire team at Furniss Lawton, particularly to my friend and agent, Rowan Lawton, for her guidance and belief in me. I sent Rowan my first manuscript whilst floating on an overcrowded tug boat off the coast of Sudan, and her confidence in my work helped me realize the dream of becoming a professional storyteller, and took me away from the circling sharks that were hungrily eyeing up my Welsh beef.

The seeds of Blood Forest were planted at Penguin with the help of Rowland White, my editor and fellow lover of all things military. Rowland ‘got it’ from the start, and I could not have asked for a better team to bring my vision to the page. Alongside Rowland, Jillian Taylor of Michael Joseph provided invaluable insights, and has helped me take strides as a writer. There are many others at Penguin who made this book possible, and I have the greatest appreciation for their efforts, with special thanks to Richard Bravery for the most amazing cover art I have ever seen!

Thank you to my good friends Tim King, Gareth Emery, and Tom Wilkinson, my unpaid proofreaders who have always given me such great feedback. You will all be rewarded for your help by receiving further unedited manuscripts in your inboxes, and my best wishes.

Final thanks goes to the incredible archaeologists and historians whose tenacity in uncovering the past makes my work not only possible, but also so thoroughly enjoyable.

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Michael Joseph is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

First published in Great Britain by Michael Joseph 2017

Copyright © Geraint Jones, 2017

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover images: Soldiers © Jeff Cottenden. Scene © Getty Images/Alamy

ISBN: 978-1-405-92778-9