An Abergavenny man who worked as a senior public information officer for the Army in Wales has published his first book chronicling the Roman Invasion of Wales.

Douglas McArthur arrived in Abergavenny in the 1980s with his wife Lu and their children Helen and Drew, when Doug was posted to the Barracks in Brecon to work as senior publication officer.

Before that the family lived in Aldershot where he was the editor of Soldier News, a newspaper for the Army, and deputy editor of its stable-mate Soldier magazine.

He started his working life on the Grantham Journal as a trainee reporter followed by stints on various newspapers before joining the Ministry of Defence as an information officer.

His book, The Red Mountain, is based on the few facts available of the Roman invasion of Cambria, but embellished or enhanced with the personal story of the tribes and the principal players.

The Red Mountain is of course the Blorenge, which dominates the Abergavenny skyline and provides a living backdrop to the tale of defiance by the tribes to the invaders.

Speaking about his first book, Douglas said: “I first started writing this book some years ago when I started to become interested in the Roman history of Abergavenny.

“I put it down, picked it up, wrote a bit more then started to get really excited about it and finished it in a rush.

‘‘At the start I had no idea how it would end but as it developed and my research grew, I started to interpret facts based on my growing knowledge of the area, and from my military knowledge of how those facts fitted the local scene.”

The book is set in AD 56 when Abergavenny was called Gobannion.

The Roman Legions were massing and drawing nearer, determined to extend their empire through the whole of Britannia.

Everywhere they went they met opposition, particularly in South Wales, where the Silure tribe was one of the most effective opponents of the Roman war machine.

Into this mix came two characters, Lenculus of Alesia, an Auxiliary attached to the XX Valeria who volunteered to travel to Gobannion to spy on the tribes, and the legendary Caratacus, twice beaten by the Romans in England, but determined to fight again with the combined tribes of Cambria.

Lenc is an auxiliary engineer attached to the XX Valeria Victrix which was to march from its base in Camulodunum (now Colchester) to the new Cambrian border forts prior to the invasion of Wales.

He volunteers to infiltrates the area before the legion arrives to draw maps and assess the fighting strength of the tribe.

To provide a cover he travels to Gaul where after several adventures he takes ship and eventually lands in the marshy wetlands at the mouth of the Usk.

This mix of verified history and imaginative interpretation sees the book through to its climax, Caratacus’ last battle somewhere in mid-Wales.

“The Red Mountain was a joy to write, especially including local landmarks and imagining them 2000 years ago.

‘‘The changing course of the River Usk, the Skirrid as a strategic observation post, an alternative reason for the small stone ruin on the edge of the saddle summit looking into Herefordshire, an expedition up ‘the Rock’ long before tarmac roads were thought of all help to weave the story.

“Special thanks must go to Paul at Cablenews in Frogmore Street who gave up a window of his busy shop to publicise and sell the book.”

Douglas will be on hand in the shop from noon to 4pm on Saturday November 6 to sign and write a message in the book.

The book is available at Cablenews, Frogmore Street, Abergavenny and on line at www.runningboar.com or as an ebook on Kindle.