Robert Harris is the author of sixteen bestselling novels: the Cicero Trilogy - Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator - Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, The Ghost, The Fear Index, An Officer and a Spy, which won four prizes including the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, Conclave, Munich, The Second Sleep, V2, Act of Oblivion and Precipice. His work has been translated into forty languages and nine of his books have been adapted for cinema and television. He lives in West Berkshire with his wife, Gill Hornby.

"Harris's best so far, rapid and compelling in narrative, copious in detail, thoroughly researched but also, which is more important, thoroughly imagined... Irresistible" -- Allan Massie Sunday Telegraph "In Harris's hands, the great game becomes a beautiful one" The Times "Genres ancient and modern have rarely been so skilfully synthesised... Gripping and accomplished" -- Tom Holland The Guardian "A joy to read in every way, and as a mirror to the politics of our present age has no equal" The Independent "Harris deploys the devices of the thriller writer to trace the perils and triumphs of Cicero's ascent ... A finely accomplished recreation of the power struggles of more than two millenniums ago" The Observer