Richard Blake

Richard Blake is the pen name of the British novelist and historian Sean Gabb. His fiction is set in the shattered world of the seventh century, when the remnants of the Roman Empire struggled to survive amid religious division, barbarian kingdoms, and the first explosive expansion of Islam. Blake’s novels stand out for their uncompromising historical accuracy, dry humour, and the vivid reconstruction of a Europe on the edge of renewal or extinction.

At the centre of his most celebrated series is Aelric—monk, scholar, lawyer, diplomat, and occasional rogue—whose prodigious intellect and unorthodox morals draw him into the politics of emperors, patriarchs, and warlords. Through Aelric’s eyes, Blake portrays a Mediterranean world still recognisably Roman yet sliding into the early Middle Ages: a world of intrigue, sudden violence, fragile alliances, and brilliant survivors.

Blake’s work is characterised by:

• Meticulous research: the novels draw on original sources, archaeological scholarship, and a historian’s feel for cultural detail.

• A distinctive narrative voice: fast-paced, sardonic, and rich in philosophical asides.

• A fusion of genres: part adventure, part political thriller, part exploration of how civilisations collapse and rebuild themselves.

The Aelric novels include Conspiracies of Rome, The Terror of Constantinople, The Blood of Alexandria, The Sword of Damascus, The Ghosts of Athens, and The Curse of Babylon, with later standalone works expanding Blake’s late-antique world.

Readers who enjoy historically grounded fiction with intellectual bite—Mary Renault, Robert Graves, or the darker corners of Patrick O’Brian—often find Blake’s novels particularly rewarding.