Samuel Stephen Chronicles
Research-led historical fiction about power, survival, war, memory and the lives caught inside larger systems.
Recommended starting point
England, 1381. Crown taxation reaches into village life and turns names, households and written records into instruments of power. A tense story of ordinary people in the pressure before revolt.
Early medieval Ulaid · Published
A Gall-Gaedhil man caught between two worlds, an assembly’s judgment, and Viking ships arriving in Loch Cuan.
War and memory
A Belfast and First World War story centred on memory, loss, family and remembrance.
River and survival
Danger, expedition and survival in a world beyond familiar maps.
Image and ambition
Glamour, ambition and the machinery behind public image, art and corruption.
Mercia · Offa’s late reign · In progress
A killing at a river crossing exposes the limits of Mercian authority as unfamiliar ships begin moving inland and isolated reports form a pattern the kingdom does not yet understand.
The Blank Roll is the recommended entry point because its central pressure is immediate: a government record reaches into ordinary households and becomes the first visible sign of a kingdom approaching revolt.
From there, choose by the kind of story you want next: early medieval identity and danger in Ravens Over Ulaid; war and remembrance in Panel 22; expedition and survival in Rio Incognitum; ambition and public image in The Orbits of Stars; or the political and maritime threat gathering through Offa’s Mercia in The King’s Crossing.
The Muniment Room contains shorter fiction and work in progress. The Black Archive follows the research outward into evidence-led historical investigations and podcasting.
