Authors Electric

While I was starting to approach publishers with my early work, I worked in National Hunt racing yards with thoroughbred horses helping to prepare them for racing over fences such as the famous Grand National. Flat racing is also a common sight here in the UK, but racehorses are not always ridden. Harness racing, where the jockey rides in a light buggy or 'sulky' pulled by the horse, bears more resemblance to the chariot races of Ancient Rome which were, by all accounts, far more dangerous an activity than our current racing under rules! Deaths on the track of both the drivers and their horses were common, and you only have to think of movies like Ben Hur to imagine how brutally competitive these races could be. Although no horses died in the filming of the 1959 version starring Charlton Heston shown in this clip (where strict welfare standards were followed), it appears that over 100 horses were shot during the making of the original 1925 silent film, some of them unnecessaril...

Imagine living under an all-powerful leader who has gone insane. One act of madness follows another, until even his closest advisers and friends begin to realise he is not who they thought he was when he ascended to power. No, I'm not talking about a 21st century leader - however tempting the comparison! I am talking about Rome in the 1st century, when we were merely a barbaric outpost known as Britannia, and the Emperor Caligula was in charge. Caligula was a nickname, given to the emperor when he was a small boy and accompanied his father on campaign wearing miniature war sandals. It means 'Little Boots', which sounds rather sweet to me, and maybe he was sweet at that age. But, after he ascended the throne in AD 37, something changed. Acts of madness and cruelty abounded, until Caligula's reign as emperor ended with his assassination in AD 41 and his uncle Claudius took over. It was a turbulent period in Rome, giving rise to many rumours, including one that Caligula ma...