Dreaming the Eagle: A Novel of Boudica, The Warrior Queen

Manda Scott

Mar 2003 · Boudica Book 1 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Josephine Bailey

About this audiobook

Dreaming the Eagle is the first part of the gloriously imagined epic trilogy of the life of Boudica.

Boudica means Bringer of Victory (from the early Celtic word “boudeg”). She is the last defender of the Celtic culture in Britain; the only woman openly to lead her warriors into battle and to stand successfully against the might of Imperial Rome -- and triumph.

It is 33 AD and eleven-year-old Breaca (later named Boudica), the red-haired daughter of one of the leaders of the Eceni tribe, is on the cusp between girl and womanhood. She longs to be a Dreamer, a mystical leader who can foretell the future, but having killed the man who has attacked and killed her mother, she has proven herself a warrior. Dreaming the Eagle is also the story of the two men Boudica loves most: Caradoc, outstanding warrior and inspirational leader; and Bàn, her half-brother, who longs to be a warrior, though he is manifestly a Dreamer, possibly the finest in his tribe’s history. Bàn becomes the Druid whose eventual return to the Celts is Boudica’s salvation.

Dreaming the Eagle is full of brilliantly realised, luminous scenes as the narrative sweeps effortlessly from the epic -- where battle scenes are huge, bloody, and action-packed -- to the intimate. Manda Scott plunges us into the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Roman invasion: a world of druids and dreamers and the magic of the gods where the natural world is as much a character as any of the people who live within it, a world of warriors who fight for honour as much as victory, a world of passion, courage and spectacular heroism pitched against overwhelming odds.

Dreaming the Eagle stunningly recreates the roots of a story so powerful its impact has lasted through the ages.

About the author

Manda Scott is a veterinary surgeon, writer, and climber. She first made her name as a crime writer. Her debut novel, Hen’s Teeth, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her subsequent novels are Night Mares, Stronger than Death and No Good Deed, for which she was hailed as "one of Britain’s most important crime writers" and was nominated for an Edgar Award.

Josephine Bailey, a native of London, is a seasoned performer who has won ten AudioFile Earphones Awards and a prestigious Audie Award. Publishers Weekly named her Best Female Narrator in 2002. She has narrated the audiobooks Jane Eyre, Year of Wonders, and A Great and Terrible Beauty, among many others.