Carla Nayland

Carla Nayland is a scientist with a lifelong interest in history and archaeology. She writes historical fiction set in Britain in the period between the Roman occupation and the Norman Conquest (5th to 11th centuries AD) and fiction set in an invented world loosely based on medieval and Renaissance Britain. Carla Nayland is a pen name, to keep her fiction separate from her scientific writing.

Carla has long been fascinated by the so-called ‘Dark Ages’, the centuries after the fall of the western Roman Empire. This was a formative period in European history, laying the foundations for most of the countries in modern Europe. In Britain, it was in this period that the countries of England, Scotland and Wales first began to emerge. It was a colourful period of tremendous diversity, with numerous religions, ethnic groups, languages and cultures all jostling for position. We are lucky enough to have a near-contemporary source, a history of England written by the Venerable Bede in 731 AD, which is full of vivid characters, drama, warfare, intrigue and betrayal. There are enough stories in the pages of Bede to keep a score of historical novelists busily inspired, yet the era is largely neglected. Carla sets out to bring this little-known period of history to life through historical fiction.

Carla has degrees in Natural Sciences and Pharmacology from Cambridge, UK, and has worked for many years in corporate strategy, cost-benefit analysis, health economics and scientific writing. She is also a keen hillwalker, which is a bit of a problem as she lives in the flatlands of East Anglia.

For a while Carla considered doing a degree in archaeology in her spare time, until deciding it would be much more fun to explore it in historical fiction instead. Historical fiction is more absorbing to write than a research paper, because it requires imagining a past society in all its detail, and requires the author to make choices and follow up the consequences. The result is also rather more enjoyable to read than a thesis.

Carla’s historical novel, Paths of Exile, is set in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in 605 AD. It tells part of the story of the historical King Eadwine of Deira, who was one of the greatest kings in Anglo-Saxon England but who spent the first part of his adult life as a hunted fugitive. How did he not only survive years of exile, but manage to reclaim his kingdom and lay the foundations for Northumbria’s Golden Age?

Northumbria, Britain, 605 AD. The Roman Empire in the West has faded into memory, replaced by a colourful mosaic of competing kingdoms. The changing times bring great opportunities – and great dangers.

Eadwine is the youngest son of the king of Deira, guardian of a neglected frontier and the faithful ally of his eldest brother and hero Eadric. When his homeland is defeated by a predatory neighbouring kingdom, Eadwine finds himself on the run for his life.

Homeless, penniless and friendless, literally with a price on his head, he must evade his enemies, avenge his brother's murder and rescue his betrothed. Along the way, he will lose his heart to another woman and discover a shattering secret that challenges all the ideals he holds dear.

Carla has also written Ingeld’s Daughter, a story of love, adventure, revenge and the price of justice set in an invented world that somewhat resembles a medieval Britain where the Norman Invasion never happened.

Irinya is Ingeld's daughter, rightful Lady of Carlundy, imprisoned by the tyrannical cousin who usurped her throne and married her by force. When she rescues the mysterious stranger Gyrdan from her husband's guards, she seizes her chance to escape.

But what is Gyrdan's business in Carlundy? Can Irinya's promise to restore justice win her enough support to overthrow the tyrant? And if it does, will she have to order the death of the man she loves?

You can find out more about Carla from her website, together with Carla’s book reviews and articles on various aspects of history. Carla welcomes correspondence from readers, about history and historical fiction in general as well as about her own novels. She can be contacted via her website or her blog.