AD265, and in the shadow of Mount Etna, slaves are rising up. As the rebel leader declares Sicily the new land of the free, men and women are slaughtered, and cities across the island are sacked and burned. When a ship is wrecked off the island’s west coast, all but two survivors are cut down […]
Why the Roman Empire grew so big
They came, they saw, and they kept on conquering. Why did the Romans expand their empire so dramatically? And who benefitted most from Roman imperialism? These are questions Harry Sidebottom needed to confront while writing his latest novel, The Return, he tells Historia. In the last two and a half centuries BCE Rome expanded from […]
The Return by Harry Sidebottom
145BC: Calabria, Ancient Rome. After years of spilling blood for Rome, Gaius Furius Paullus has returned home to spend his remaining days working quietly on the family farm. But it seems death has stalked Paullus from the battlefield. Just days after his arrival, bodies start appearing – murdered and mutilated. And as the deaths stack […]
The Lost Ten by Harry Sidebottom
When Valens, a junior officer in the Roman Army, joins a crack squad of soldiers on a dangerous mission, little does he know what’s in store for him. Tasked with rescuing the young Prince Sasan, who has been imprisoned in the impenetrable Castle of Silence, the troops set out across Mesopotamia and into the mountains […]
HWA Sharpe Gold Crown shortlist giveaway!
It’s time for the third and last 2018 Historia HWA Crowns shortlist giveaway! This time we’re giving all six novels on the Sharpe Books Gold Crown award shortlist to one winner. Follow the instructions below to enter. You’ve got four chances to win and can enter using any or all of the options: 1. Sign up to […]
History by the River April 18
History by the River is a monthly panel event with a social buzz for lovers of books, history and good beer. It’s a chance to get together with fellow readers and authors to hear about the best new historical writing, then discuss it all over a drink afterwards. Three acclaimed writers, three remarkable stories, one […]
The Dark Legacy of Rome
“Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” The classic comedy of Monty Python’s Life of Brian sums up the modern perception that the Roman empire was a force for good. But there are darker aspects […]
Desert Island Books: Harry Sidebottom
Harry Sidebottom picks his top five historical novels for castaways. Alfred Duggan, Family Favourites (1960) As a boy I got into historical fiction through the novels of Alfred Duggan, as well as those of Graham Shelby, George Shipway, R. F. Tapsell, and Wallace Breem. I have chosen Duggan’s Family Favourites, not only because it is a […]