This week's bookcase includes reviews of Mary Beard latest tome, SPQR: A History Of Ancient Rome, Dictator by Robert Harris, Ruth Rendell's last mystery, Dark Corners, and Magnus Chase And The Sword Of Summer by children's favourite Rick Riordan
SPQR: A History Of Ancient Rome
Mary Beard
The celebrated media don and classicist has poured 50 years of study into this lively, unsentimental and highly readable history of ancient Rome, from its founding in near-mythic times up through the emerging city state of tribunes and senators to the grandiose epoch of the emperors, finishing at that crucial point in 212CE when citizenship was extended to all free inhabitants of the empire under Caracalla.
What strikes you most is how much of our received wisdom about Rome is dubious or just plain wrong. The founding story of wolves suckling Romulus and Remus is pure fiction, for instance. This book is a treasure, both as a fascinating read in itself and as a fine work of reference to correct our lazy misconceptions about an ancient world that still has much to instruct us today.
Dictator
Robert Harris
Robert Harris closes his trilogy on the life of the great Roman statesman, orator and philosopher Cicero with this tale of his downfall, against the backdrop of the fall of the Republic and the rise of what would become the Roman Empire. Again told through the eyes of his trusty (and eventually freed) slave and friend Tiro in retirement, it is a masterful story of political intrigue and the pursuit of absolute power. Harris is careful to avoid making this too much of a hagiography of Cicero - he is a very human hero, a sharp-witted and masterful back-room political wheeler-dealer, as well as being one of history's great public speakers. It is a fascinating and absorbing novel about the machinations behind some of the most momentous events in classical history.
Dark Corners
Ruth Rendell
Forty years on from her debut novel, this is crime writer Ruth Rendell's swan song, written before her death in May this year. Young author Carl takes a tenant for the top floor of the London house he inherits, but never throws away a stack of pills and potions left by his late father. But when he sells some pills to a friend, his life begins to slowly unravel. This is Rendell at her most subtle, showing how small, seemingly meaningless actions lead to momentous consequences and coolly demonstrating that conscience and the dark corners of our mind, are far more powerful and terrible than any outside influence.
Magnus Chase And The Sword Of Summer
Rick Riordan
After the success of his Percy Jackson/Greek Gods series and the Egyptian Kane Chronicles, Rick Riordan is taking on Norse myths in his latest adventure. Magnus Chase has been living on the streets ever since his mum was killed in a fire. He is tracked down by an unknown uncle who tells him an unbelievable secret - Magnus is the son of a Norse god. Magnus has such a wicked sense of humour that it makes the story so much better. The gods have very different personalities from what one might have imagined them to have. The book flows really well and it has humour and good description dotted through it.
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