Daughters Of Fire

Historian and university lecturer Viv Lloyd Rees resigns from her university post when the BBC express interest in making a programme based on her book on Cartimandua, Celtic queen of the Brigantes and peer of Boudicca. Together with biographer Kate Kennedy and actress Pat Taylor, she forms ‘Daughters of Fire’, a company dedicated to making dramas about women who have made history on their own terms.

But the three women soon discover that tension exists between them as they travel to the Pennines – where Cartimandua lived – for inspiration and research. Slowly and inexorably, Cartimandua begins to take them over. Pat deliberately courts her memory, trying to put herself into the warrior queen’s shoes, Viv searches for archaeological evidence, while Kate fights a growing realisation that the spirit of Cartimandua is not at rest. As Cartimandua’s presence becomes more and more real, Pat’s hold on reality begins to waver and ancient rivalries reverberate against modern ones…