Tom Holland

Wiltshire, during the dying days of Oliver Cromwell's Republic. Robert Vaughan is the son of a Parliamentarian officer who is investigating a series of grisly murders which suggest a link with Satanic rituals at Stonehenge. The return of a notoriously wicked Cavalier, signalling the impending royalist restoration, leads to a terrible tragedy for the Vaughans. Robert's flight from his violent, terrifying past leads him to Restoration London, where he works as scribe for Milton, and where he survives the Plague and the Great Fire. But Robert is led along a dark path, to vampirism and beyond, as he devotes himself to gaining the powers that will enable him to fight an evil killer of seemingly satanic powers. He will travel the globe, from the ancient ghetto of Prague to the virgin forest of the New World, as he aims to gain revenge on those who betrayed him.

In 1888 Dr John Eliot returns to London haunted by the memory of a terrible expedition to a remote Himalayan kingdom, where he had uncovered horrors far beyond the frontiers of science. Yet Eliot's faith in reason is to be tested even further when the body of a friend, drained white of blood, is dragged up from the Thames, and another associate goes missing. Eliot's quest to uncover the mystery reveals a deadly conspiracy, but then, in the lair of an enigmatic Eastern adventuress, he glimpses hints of a truth yet more extraordinary, of dark and terrible pleasures, of a whole new world ...Vampires and immortals walk the gas-lit streets of Victorian London, mingling with Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Lord Byron, and Tom Holland meshes fact with fiction in this brilliantly imaginative novel of passion and suspense.

Der populäre Bestseller aus Großbritannien vom Jungstar der Historikerszene Es geschah vor 2500 Jahren, dass Ost und West Krieg miteinander führten. Im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. war eine globale Supermacht fest entschlossen, zwei Staaten Wahrheit und Ordnung zu bringen, die sie für terroristische Schurkenstaaten ansah. Die Supermacht war Persien, dessen Könige das erste Weltreich gegründet hatten. Die terroristischen Staaten waren Athen und Sparta, eigenwillige Städte in einem weit abgelegenen armen und bergigen Land: Griechenland. Die Geschichte, wie die Bürger dieses Landes dem mächtigsten Mann der Welt widerstanden und ihn besiegten, ist eine der beeindruckendsten Episoden der Geschichte. "Persisches Feuer" gibt nicht nur eine dramatische Darstellung dieser großen Auseinandersetzung, sondern auch ein einzigartiges Gesamtbild von Ost und West. Von den Priestern in Babylon bis zur Geheimpolizei der Spartaner, von den Luxusgärten der Perser bis zu den athenischen Prostituierten, von Darius, dem Mörder und größten politischen Genie des Orients bis zu Themistokles, dem Mann, der den Westen rettete, werden alle Akteure in der faszinierenden Erzählung Tom Hollands lebendig. "Erzählte Geschichte vom Feinsten. Ein Buch, das mich wirklich gefesselt hat." Ian McEwan

'Ingenious and entertaining' Sunday Times' Byron himself would have been pleased by such an eerie, erudite addition to his myth' Time OutInfamous poet Lord Byron comes to life with incendiary brilliance in this spellbinding blend of gothic imagination and documented fact. Wandering in the mountains of Greece, the supreme sensualist is drawn to the beauty of a mysterious fugitive slave; soon he is utterly entranced, and his fate is sealed. He embarks on a life of adventure even his genius could not have foreseen; chosen to enjoy powers beyond those any vampire has ever known, Byron traverses the centuries and enters a dark, intoxicating world of long-lost secrets, ancient arts and scorching excesses of evil. But Byron's gift is also his torment: an all-consuming thirst that withers life at the root, damning all those he loves.With its impeccable scholarship and breathtaking storytelling, THE VAMPYRE is a wonderful combination of fact and fantasy.

A "sweeping popular account" (The Seattle Times) of how Athens and Sparta withstood an assault from the Persian Empire in the cradle of Western civilization, from the acclaimed author of Rubicon and co-host of the hit podcast The Rest Is History"Excellent. . . . There is an even handedness in Holland's treatment of both Greek and Persian cultural riches that is rare in popular accounts of these wars." --The Sunday Times (London) In the fifth century B.C., a global superpower was determined to bring truth and order to what it regarded as two terrorist states. The superpower was Persia, incomparably rich in ambition, gold, and men. The terrorist states were Athens and Sparta, eccentric cities in a poor and mountainous backwater: Greece. The story of how their citizens took on the Great King of Persia, and thereby saved not only themselves but Western civilization as well, is as heart-stopping and fateful as any episode in history. Tom Holland's brilliant study of these critical Persian Wars skillfully examines a conflict of critical importance to both ancient and modern history.

A brilliant new account of the world's very first clash of civilisations between the Persians and the Greeks in 480BC.

A vivid historical account of the social world of Julius Caesar's Rome as it moved from republic to empire, from the acclaimed author of Dynasty and co-host of the hit podcast The Rest Is History "A fascinating picture of Roman city life . . . In every aspect of this story, Holland expertly makes the Romans, so alien and yet so familiar, relevant to us."--Los Angeles Times "Stunning . . . Holland keeps his narrative moving at chariot-race speed."--Newsday In 49 B.C., the seven hundred fifth year since the founding of Rome, Julius Caesar crossed a small border river called the Rubicon and plunged Rome into cataclysmic civil war. Tom Holland's enthralling account tells the story of Caesar's generation, witness to the twilight of the Republic and its bloody transformation into an empire. From Cicero, Spartacus, and Brutus, to Cleopatra, Virgil, and Augustus, here are some of the most legendary figures in history brought thrillingly to life. Combining verve and freshness with scrupulous scholarship, Rubicon is not only an engrossing history of this pivotal era but a uniquely resonant portrait of a great civilization in all its extremes of self-sacrifice and rivalry, decadence and catastrophe, intrigue, war, and world-shaking ambition.

' The Book that really held me, in fact, obsessed me, was Rubicon ...This is narrative history at its best. Bloody and labyrinthine political intrigue and struggle, brilliant oratory, amazing feats of conquest and cruelty.' Ian McEwan, Books of the Year, GUARDIAN