Minoa is a tale of bull jumping, love and wine drinking with a bit of feminism thrown in. It is set in the Minoan civilisation that infested Crete in the bronze age. The land of the minatour and King Minos. The Minoans invented the sport of bull jumping and were never so happy as when jumping over a charging bull. The books main protagonists are Allias a successful olive grower, Ariadne the young daughter of Arudara the armourer to the city of Phaistos and Kitane Arudara’s wife. There are also Bansabira the King of Phaistos and Pasipha the high priestess both of whom like a drink. There are friends and servants who make their way into the narrative as well as Didikase who is Allias’s mortal enemy and who conspires on more than one occasion to try and wreck Allias’s life and eventually kill him. Allias is an accomplished bull jumper and after he and Ariadne meet and fall in love he agrees against his better judgement to train her in the art of bull jumping. There is a tournament which includes bull jumping amongst its events which both Allias and Ariadne enter. In the book there are tales of Allias’s and Ariadne’s relationship, they go hunting together, survive an earthquake and Allias makes sea voyages to Cyprus and Egypt once with Ariadne and once without. Meanwhile Bansabira the King of Phaistos gets cheesed off with his Queen, Rhea and falls in love with Pasipha the high priestess who is in charge of the priestesses and runs the temple at the palace from which the Mother Goddess is worshipped. He divorces Rhea and marries Pasipha. There are two weddings in the book one between Allias and Ariadne and the aforementioned one between Bansabira and Pasipha. Allias grows the best olives in Crete and trades his olives with the palace at Phaistos and on one occasion the palace at Knossos the capital city of the Minoan civilisation. Throughout the book there are epic wine drinking sessions complete with some very deserved hangovers. The book ends with another visit to Knossos during which the volcanic island of Santorini explodes causing a tidal wave. A lot of the names are genuine Minoan names as are the names of the cities. Some artistic license has been used with some of the names and with the use of copper as currency for trading. Minoans did not use money and were traders. The book is a light comedy and though it could have happened it almost certainly didn't. It is not intended to be a serious historical epic but to amuse and entertain.