Welcome to my website. Actually it’s a blog, but that’s such an odd word… If this is the first thing you see here, then you’re one of the earliest visitors – thank you.

I’m Ruth Downie, sometimes known as R S Downie (because all writers have to have two initials). I write a series of mystery novels set in Roman Britain, featuring exasperated Army medic Gaius Petreius Ruso and a Briton who calls herself Tilla.

You might reasonably ask why someone who’s only written two books so far needs a blog, a website, a… whatever you like to call it. Well, I probably don’t. Except for this…

The books are published under different titles in different parts of the world. It’s potentially confusing and when I try to explain it, people look even more confused than before. So I won’t do that here. Instead, please take a look at the ‘books’ page (there’s a link on the right) where you can see the very lovely covers, and hopefully all will become clear.

Since you’ve kindly taken the trouble to visit, I’ve added in a few of the sort of things you find on proper writers’ websites (more pages to click on the right) – plus some links to other favourites, including a couple where you can explore the locations of the books.

Hopefully all the technology will work. If it doesn’t, it’s probably because I’ve been pushing the wrong buttons. Please click ‘contact’, let me know and I’ll try and push the right ones next time.