BERNADETTE VALLELY
STUDIES IN THE GODDESS · LONDINIVM
DOG. GODDESS. · THE GODDESS EXPLORED · ACADEMIC PAPERS · EVENTS & TOURS · CONTACT
HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, ARTIST AND BROADCASTER
The Goddess of
London, uncovered.
Bernadette Vallely is a historian, author, artist and broadcaster. For more than a decade she has traced Goddess religion through the museums, curse tablets and sanctuary sites of Roman Britain, from Diana of the amphitheatre to the sacred dogs of Londinium. Her new book Dog. Goddess. publishes 28 November 2026. New books, papers and unique museum tours, gathered here.
Bernadette Vallely · London · Photo © SaraMai26
✦ A free gift when you order ✦
Order Dog. Goddess. direct and receive a free set of six different postcards, worth £5. They use artwork from the book, showing early images of British and Celtic dogs.
CURRENT WORK
THE NEW BOOK
Dog.
Goddess.
UNLEASHING BRITAIN'S HIDDEN IDENTITY
by Bernadette Vallely
THE FIRST REVIEW
“Dog. Goddess. is set to rewrite history.”
It is a shocking exposé of male historians’ unconscious bias that completely missed Artemis-Diana as the Goddess of Creation, who Christianity worked so hard to erase. But the evidence is undeniable and is set out here in meticulous detail. Astonishing, enlightening, and accessibly written, this is a truly paradigm-shifting book, the effects of which will reverberate through the halls of academia for many years to come.
HELENA FOSS, AUTHOR
Dogs were once at the centre of British religion.
Both Iron Age tribes and Romano-British religion were centred on the Goddess Diana. Everyday life depended on it. From Celtic and late Iron Age to Roman Christianity, dogs were an important physical form of ritual, for boundaries, to begin and end things, for new buildings, for fertility and protection. Thousands of rituals using dogs have been verified. Dogs were also at the heart of Roman economic power in Britain: the mastiff, the bulldog and other large breeds were bred intensively as war dogs. Roman Britain gives us lions, dogs and deer as its great icons. Diana, the Goddess of dogs and wild animals, was at the centre of this worship and symbolism.
◆ See the earliest images of dogs in Britain.
◆ Uncover a hidden British history that unleashes our true relationship with dogs.
£20
plus postage · free set of six different postcards using artwork from the book (worth £5) · publishes 28 November 2026
Order here directly from the author and support my work!
Bulk orders & bookshops: contact [email protected]
ORDER FORM
Order your signed copy of Dog. Goddess.
£20 plus postage, with a free set of six different postcards using artwork from the book. Fill in your details below and press Send my order. Your book will be posted to the address you give here, so please check it carefully.
FEATURED BOOKLET
The Diana Sanctuary
Goddess Diana, Bushy Park, and the two-thousand-year Dianic landscape of London.
Bushy Park has stood since 1713 as an open-air temple to Diana, her gilded ‘Great Diana’ at the meeting of a mile-long avenue. This booklet maps it as the centrepiece of a Dianic London two thousand years old. Publishes 28 February 2027. Pre-orders are open now.
EXPLORE THE WORK
Booklets & academic papers
The Goddess Booklets
A growing series · £13 each · print or PDF
Illustrated booklets on the Goddess in Britain and the ancient Mediterranean: accessible, richly sourced, and written for the general reader as much as the scholar.
1 · The Black Goddess: Race, colour theology & the suppression of Diana's religion · publication date 3 February 2027 · £13
2 · The Diana Sanctuary: Bushy Park & the two-thousand-year Dianic landscape of London · publication date 28 February 2027 · pre-orders open · £13
3 · The Worship of the Goddess Cybele: The Magna Mater in Roman Britain · publication date 28 March 2027 · £13
4 · The Caryatids: Priestess dancers of Artemis Diana: sacred architecture, dance & evidence · publication date June 2027 · £13
5 · The Diana Colouring Book: Forty original line illustrations, including Celtic & Roman dogs · publication date 28 February 2027 · pre-orders open · £11
All prices include UK postage.
PRE-PUBLICATION
It costs a great deal to publish beautiful work like this, so the dates are spread out for quality and budget. If you are able to order in advance it definitely supports my work. You will receive extra bonus gifts and my thanks.
Studies in Romano-British Religion
Ten papers · £7 each · PDF, or enquire for costs of printed copies
1 · The Goddesses of Early Britain: The religion we were never taught
2 · The Sacred Dance from Greece to Roman Britain: Ritual choreography, female initiation, and the evidence
3 · A Goddess Without Parallel: The curse tablet of Diana from the Londinium amphitheatre
4 · A Romano-British Castration Clamp & the Rites of Cybele: The taurobolium and the terra sigillata record
5 · The Corbridge Lanx: A case study in misdirection
6 · The Foster Lane Altar of Diana: A re-curation of the London hunter-god
7 · Mended for Meaning: The ritual significance of repaired decorated terra sigillata
8 · Roman Art and Mosaic Interpretation: Cross-media validation with decorated terra sigillata pottery
9 · Roman Art and Lamp Interpretation: Cross-media validation with decorated terra sigillata pottery
10 · A Vocabulary Map of Religious Asymmetry: How scholarship names the religion of the Goddess and the religion of the West
All prices include UK postage.
SMALL GROUP GUIDED TOURS · JANUARY & FEBRUARY 2027
The Sacred Journey
Three tour days with Bernadette Vallely · Wed 27 January · Thu 25 & Sat 27 February 2027
WED 27 JAN · £35
Goddesses of the British Museum. Greeks, Romans, and the Goddesses of early Britain.
THU 25 FEB · £35
St Paul's & the Goddess Diana. Ludgate Hill, the lost temple beneath the cathedral, and the environment surrounding it. Meet at 10.30am. The tour runs until 2.30pm. You can then go inside St Paul's with an extra ticket, £20.
SAT 27 FEB · £35
Goddesses of the British Museum. More Goddesses of the British Museum: a similar tour with new pieces.
The museum tour runs twice, in January and February. There is far too much to see in one day. The content is similar, but each day explores different rooms and artefacts.
The British Museum holds 139 named Goddesses
Bookings and Queries: [email protected]
AUTUMN 2026 · LAUNCHES, TALKS & EVENTS
Dog.
Goddess.
Book Tour
Join Bernadette Vallely on the road: book launches, previews and free talks across Britain.
Roman Sacred Tree by Bernadette Vallely, 2026
Kingston
Mon 9 Nov · 6pm · Launch of The Diana Sanctuary Exhibition
The White Hart, 1 High St, Kingston, KT1 4DA
Fishguard: A Festival of Creativity & Dogs, 15 to 21 November
A week of talks, drawing, painting and dogs at Trove, 36 West Street, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire SA65 9AD. Talks by donation, suggested £5. Raffle for Greenacres Animal Rescue: dog hamper, dog books and champagne.
Sun 15 Nov · 5pm to 8pm · LAUNCH · Exhibition Opening and Dog. Goddess. Pre-launch
Britain's earliest images of dogs. By invitation.
Sun 15 to Sat 21 Nov · EXHIBITION · Ancient Dogs
Britain's earliest images of dogs: Iron Age, Roman and Celtic. Illustrations and paintings by Bernadette Vallely. Free.
Mon to Fri · 10am to 12 noon and 3pm to 5pm · Art Club · All Ages Welcome
Painting, felting, printing and making. From £5. Classes £5 to £10.
Mon 16 Nov · 7pm to 9pm · TALK · Meet Heather & Ted
An evening with HM Coastguard volunteer and sustainable fashion influencer Heather (@HeatherGetsDressed) and her dog Ted. Supporting Fishguard Coastguard and Rope Rescue Team. By donation.
Tue 17 Nov · 7pm to 9pm · TALK · Telepathic Communication with Dogs
Samantha Pugh, animal shamanic practitioner, healing animals and people. By donation.
Wed 18 Nov · 7pm to 9pm · TALK · Are We a Nation of Dog Lovers?
With Bernadette Vallely. By donation.
Thu 19 Nov · 7pm to 9pm · CLASS · The Art of Drawing a Dog
Life drawing and drawing from a photograph, with a local artist. By donation.
Fri 20 Nov · Evening · FUNDRAISER · Dogtastic Night Out
In aid of Greenacres Animal Rescue. Raffle, Mexican food, cocktails and cake, music by Soma & Merakki, and dancing. Entry by donation. Pay bar.
Sat 21 Nov · All day · Dog Modelling and Drawing Day
A full day of making. All welcome. Plus a Dog Bring and Buy Sale, 12 noon to 4pm, for Greenacres. By donation.
Staines-upon-Thames
Sat 28 Nov · 4pm to 7pm · OFFICIAL BOOK LAUNCH · Shakti Sings and Friends · Seasonal Fayre
Artisan crafts, gifts, foods and home made and unique items. Free entry. St Peter's Church Hall, Laleham Road, Staines-upon-Thames TW18 2DX
The Ancient Dogs exhibition is available to hire as a touring show: 4 panels or the full 22, printed at A3 or A4. Hire includes postage, packing and insurance. Enquiries to [email protected].
More events added as they are confirmed. Check back soon.
More about Bernadette
AUTHOR · RESEARCHER · HISTORIAN · ARTIST
Independent researcher in Romano-British archaeology and the iconography of the Goddess in Britain.
Bernadette Vallely is an independent researcher. Her twelve-year programme of primary research across the British Museum and London Museum has uncovered evidence of an entire system of Goddess worship in ancient London. It is centred on Diana, and can be traced, in changed form, into living British traditions. The research includes a new and exciting foundational story for our culture and British identity, with dogs, lions and deer at its centre.
Her cross-disciplinary method, applied directly to the physical objects, has produced a series of discoveries no previous scholar had made, though the evidence has been available for over a hundred and fifty years.
One of the earliest images of the Goddess Diana with a Dog in a leather pouch, with bow, from an Iron Age coin of the Trinovantes people, minted c.10 CE. Coin in the British Museum. Illustration by Bernadette Vallely, 2024.
THE SCALE OF THE RESEARCH
6,311 pieces of decorated terra sigillata from Roman London bearing the symbolism and imagery of the Goddess Diana
100,000+ pieces of Roman pottery from Britain surveyed in the course of the research
189 previously unrecognised representations of the Goddess Diana identified
PUBLIC LIFE
Author and broadcaster, Vallely has published a dozen books on environmental and women's issues, contributed to school textbooks, and produced her own radio programme, The Gaia Show. She founded the Women's Environmental Network and gave evidence in Parliament on environmental health. In 1996 she was awarded the United Nations Global 500 Environmental Laureate. The same year she created and led What Women Want, a major survey of British women's political needs and priorities that helped shape a wave of policy thinking on women's futures.
She created and managed the award-winning Save the World Club urban mosaic project in Kingston upon Thames for ten years. It was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II and the Mayor of London, and received further awards for urban landscape design and community participation. In 2010 she co-authored Gender and the Climate Change Agenda, launched in Parliament with Oxfam, ActionAid, the Fawcett Society and Brunel University. She founded the London Goddess Temple in 2006.
Exploring the legacy of the Goddess in Britain: tours at the British Museum.
"A day right on the cutting edge of historical research. Truly paradigm-shifting stuff."
HELENA FOSS · AUTHOR & JOURNALIST
THE RESEARCH
Vallely's work spans Romano-British archaeology, classical iconography, numismatics (the study of coins), medieval manuscript transmission, and the history of British ritual practice. Her cross-disciplinary method, developed through original primary research across the collections of the British Museum and the London Museum, has uncovered evidence of an entire system of Goddess worship in ancient London. It is centred on Diana, and found across every category of material culture from the Bronze Age to the Reformation.
Her background in environmental research and public advocacy informs a method that puts material evidence first, across institutional and disciplinary boundaries.
189 previously unrecognised representations of Diana on decorated terra sigillata
94 unrecognised coins bearing the Goddess's iconography
⁂ the reconnection of sculptural, faunal and architectural evidence to a coherent religious landscape
⁂ documentation of systematic institutional bias in the classification of female deity representation
FORTHCOMING WORK
Three books are forthcoming. The first, Dog. Goddess. Unleashing Britain's Hidden Identity, publishes on 28 November 2026 (Troubador). It will be followed in 2027 by St Paul's Cathedral and the Goddess Diana, and Deae: The Evisceration of the Goddess.
A series of academic papers covers the temple tradition at St Paul's Cathedral, Romano-Celtic temple typology, sacred canines in Roman London, the religion of Diana, coin evidence for Goddess worship in ancient Britain, a Romano-British castration clamp and the rites of Cybele, and a full gazetteer of Goddess temples and shrines across Roman Britain. Explore the papers →
SHAKTI SINGS CHOIR · HONOURING THE EARTH WITH SONG
In 2012 Bernadette founded the Shakti Sings Choir, a community choir that honours the earth with song. The choir has sung at Glastonbury Festival and at events across the UK. Its Sing to the Land project began at the source of the Thames and has sung at nearly 100 tributaries of the river since 2014, reaching central London. The choir sings twice a year in the centre of Stonehenge, at the Winter and Summer Solstice.
Choir events and enquiries: [email protected]
The Shakti Sings Choir at the centre of Stonehenge, Winter Solstice. The gathering made the front pages of The Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian, with coverage worldwide.
DEVI'S JEWELS LTD
LONDINIVM · STUDIES IN ROMANO-BRITISH RELIGION
DOG. GODDESS. · THE GODDESS EXPLORED · ACADEMIC PAPERS · EVENTS & TOURS · CONTACT
© 2026 Bernadette Vallely. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution and citation.
