The Immigrant Queen
by Peter Taylor-Gooby
Hated as a foreigner, despised as a woman, I became First Lady of Athens
Aspasia falls passionately in love with Pericles, the leading statesman of Fifth Century Athens. Artists, writers and thinkers frequent her salon. She hides her past as a sex-worker, trafficked to the city, and becomes Pericles’ lover. Her writings attract the attention of Socrates, and she becomes the only woman to join his circle. She is known throughout the city for her beauty and wit and strives to become recognised as an intellectual alongside men.
Pericles’ enemies attack him through Aspasia and charge her with blasphemy. As a foreigner she faces execution, but her impassioned address to the jury shames the city and saves her. Pericles is spellbound, they marry, and she becomes First Lady of Athens.
Sparta besieges the city; plague breaks out and Pericles is once again in danger.
The Immigrant Queen tells the true story of how Aspasia rose to become the First Lady of Athens and triumphed against all the odds.
5 out of 5 fairies
I love reading books that take people who have been mostly erased from history and give their stories new life, and Taylor-Gooby did an excellent job of bringing ancient Athens and it’s inhabitants, especially Aspasia to life. The story is told through the eyes of Limander, a bard turned slave. I loved getting immersed in the daily life and less common parts of life back then, and I was quickly heavily invested in Aspasia’s story. I admit, I’d never heard much about Aspasia before this book, although it was easy to recognize the names of some of the men surrounding her (Socrates, Pericles). Everything truly does come to life around you, immersing you in a beautiful blend of history and fiction. It’s clear a lot of research went into this book, and fans of realistic historical fiction are sure to love this!
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I enjoy talking to my children, holidays, hill-walking and riding my bike. I’ve worked on adventure playgrounds, as a teacher, as an antique dealer and in a social security office in Newcastle. Before that I spent a year on a Gandhian Ashram in Vijayawada, supporting myself as assistant editor on a local English-language newspaper.
In my day job I’m an academic but I believe that you can only truly understand the issues that matter to people through your feelings, your imagination and your compassion. That’s why I write novels.
My first novel, “The Baby Auction” 2017, is a love story set in a fantasy world where the only rule is the law of the market. That someone should help another because they care for them simply doesn’t make sense to the citizens of Market World, any more that auctioning babies might to us. My second, “Ardent Justice” 2018, is a crime story set in the world of high finance and city fat-cats, where money rules, but greed can trip even the most successful. My third, “Blood Ties” 2020, is about the ties of love in a troubled family, and the bonds of debt that chain illegal immigrants to people-traffickers, and how they can be broken through self-sacrifice. My fourth, “A Kinder City” 2022, returns to Market World where the relentless pursuit of profit leads to environmental devastation. I hope you enjoy them.