The Gates Of Athens

BE TRANSPORTED TO THE EPIC WORLD OF THE ATHENIANS WITH CONN IGGULDEN'S LATEST LEGENDARY TALE 'Astonishing, convincing and compelling, with ferocious battles that bring the Ancient World of Greece alive' 5***** Reader Review ______ A STATESMAN IS BORN, NOT MADE . . . Marathon. A Persian king stands at last on Greek soil. His Immortals have come to raze the cities of the west. The Athenians are hopelessly outnumbered. The gods are silent. All they have is the shield line. Xanthippus takes a breath. If they cannot stand, all Greece will fall. Thermopylae. Ten years later, Athens has betrayed its favourite son. When the Persians return, when they cross the Hellespont to take revenge on the Greeks, will Xanthippus come home to save his people? Athens cannot stand alone a second time. In desperation, the city calls on men of Sparta to block the pass at Thermopylae. To give them time. To give them hope. Featuring two of the most famous battles of the Ancient World, The Gates of Athens is a bravura piece of storytelling about a people driven to preserve their freedom at any cost. ______ Readers are raving about The Gates of Athens: 'What a brilliantly addictive read' 5***** Reader Review 'This author never fails to deliver!' 5***** Reader Review 'Another brilliant historical novel from the master of the craft' 5***** Reader Review 'It's like being on the battlefield' 5***** Reader Review PRAISE FOR CONN IGGULDEN 'The pace is nail-biting and the set-dressing magnificent' Times 'Pacy . . . and packed with action' Sunday Times 'One of our finest historical novelists' Daily Express 'Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction' Daily Mirror

THE GRIPPING ADVENTURE BASED ON AN EPIC TRUE STORY FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR, PERFECT FOR FANS OF BERNARD CORNWELL 'HIS FINEST NOVEL TO DATE . . . THE BATTLE SCENES ARE THRILLING' SUNDAY EXPRESS __________ In the Ancient World, one army was feared above all others. 401 BC. The Persian king Artaxerxes rules an empire stretching from the Aegean to northern India. As many as fifty million people are his subjects. His rule is absolute. But the sons of Sparta are eager to play the game of thrones . . . Battles can be won - or lost - with a single blow. Princes fall. And when the dust of civil war settles, the Spartans are left stranded in the heart of an enemy's empire, without support, without food and without water. Far from home, surrounded by foes, it falls to the young soldier Xenophon to lead the survivors against Artaxerxes' legendary Persian warriors . . . __________ 'The pace is nail-biting' THE TIMES Praise for Conn Iggulden: 'Here is a master at work. There is no one better at this' GILES KRISTIAN 'Brings war in the ancient world to vivid, gritty and bloody life. I'm blown away' ANTHONY RICHES 'Iggulden tells an absolutely cracking story...the pace is nail-biting and the set dressing magnificent' THE TIMES 'An epic piece of historical fiction, full of political intrigue and vivid action' ROBERT FABBRI 'Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction' DAILY MIRROR Author's novel, Empire was a Sunday Times bestseller May 2023

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Steven Pressfield brings the battle of Thermopylae to brilliant life.”—Pat Conroy At Thermopylae, a rocky mountain pass in northern Greece, the feared and admired Spartan soldiers stood three hundred strong. Theirs was a suicide mission, to hold the pass against the invading millions of the mighty Persian army. Day after bloody day they withstood the terrible onslaught, buying time for the Greeks to rally their forces. Born into a cult of spiritual courage, physical endurance, and unmatched battle skill, the Spartans would be remembered for the greatest military stand in history—one that would not end until the rocks were awash with blood, leaving only one gravely injured Spartan squire to tell the tale. . . .

The Peloponnesian War has begun. An army of merciless Spartan invaders have arrived at the gates of Plataea, bent on obliterating the independent city-state and its inhabitants. Plataea's oldest allies, the Athenians, are spread too thin in their own campaigns to send help. Cut off and alone, the Plataeans have dug in behind their high walls for the coming attack, while the tyrannical Spartans prepare to lay siege. On a rugged mountain road, a young Plataean warrior named Nikias rides to Athens on an urgent quest. He carries with him a bag of ill-gotten gold, hoping to raise an army of mercenaries to help defend his citadel from the Spartan assault. But in the sprawling stronghold of Athens, Nikias encounters perils that prove to be more dangerous than those he has faced on the battlefield. Noble Smith's Spartans at the Gates transports us to the dawn of one of history's most famous wars--a fight that would tear apart the great powers of ancient Greece.

TWO LEGENDARY BATTLES. ONE FEARLESS WARRIOR . . . EXPERIENCE THE EPIC BATTLEFIELDS OF ANCIENT GREECE WITH MASTER STORYTELLER CONN IGGULDEN 'Brings war in the ancient world to vivid, gritty and bloody life' Anthony Riches 'Another masterpiece from Iggulden' 5***** Reader Review 'It's like being on the battlefield' 5***** Reader Review 'An epic piece of historical fiction, full of political intrigue and vivid action' Robert Fabbri ________ Themistocles stands as the battle-scarred leader of Athens. Yet he is no nobleman, and is distrusted by many. But those who stand against him cannot argue with two things: his victories as a warrior, and the vast Persian army heading their way . . . And so Themistocles must fight. Fight the invaders. Fight the allies who despise him. Fight for his city. As the Persians draw close, he must prove himself again and again in battle. Because history belongs to the courageous . . . ________ 'I was transported. I felt the Mediterranean sun on my face, smelled the sea on the air . . . Here is a master at work. There is no one better at this' GILES KRISTIAN 'Bring[s] the Greco-Persian Wars to life in brilliant detail. Thrilling' DAILY EXPRESS PRAISE FOR CONN IGGULDEN 'The pace is nail-biting and the set-dressing magnificent' Times 'Pacy . . . and packed with action' Sunday Times 'One of our finest historical novelists' Daily Express 'Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction' Daily Mirror

EXPERIENCE THE EPIC BLOOD FEUDS OF ANCIENT GREECE WITH MASTER STORYTELLER CONN IGGULDEN 'Vivid, atmospheric, gritty . . . you'll believe you're on the battlefield fighting for your life' 5***** Reader Review 'An epic piece of historical fiction, full of political intrigue and vivid action' Robert Fabbri 'Iggulden doesn't just describe the ancient world, he takes you there' 5***** Reader Review TWO LEGENDARY BATTLES. ONE FEARLESS WARRIOR . . . ________ Themistocles stands as the battle-scarred leader of Athens. Yet he is no nobleman. The elite distrust him. But those conspiring against him cannot argue with his victories on the battlefield. Or the vast Persian army that is coming . . . And so Themistocles must fight. Fight the invaders. Fight the allies who despise him. Fight to save his city. As the Persians draw close, he must prove himself again and again in battle. TO LIVE OR DIE FOR ATHENS. ________ 'Brings war in the ancient world to vivid, gritty and bloody life. I'm blown away. Protector stand alongside the best of Mary Renault - an epic with the learning of the classics' ANTHONY RICHES Readers are raving about PROTECTOR: 'Iggulden's achievement is to tell the story of the conflict on a human scale without losing sight of the huge historical and cultural forces at play. Educational and entertaining, Protector is a compelling read' 5***** Reader Review '[Iggulden] has outdone himself on the tension and suspense he has created with these characters and this story' 5***** Reader Review 'As soon as you see the name "Conn Iggulden", you know you're in for a treat. Always. I can't tell you how much I enjoy Conn Iggulden's writing' 5***** Reader Review

Witness the rise of the Tudors in the stunning conclusion to Conn Iggulden's powerful retelling of the Wars of the Roses. 'An utterly compelling page-turner full of historical facts. A fascinating read' Sun England, 1470. A divided kingdom cannot stand. King Edward of York has been driven out of England. Queen Elizabeth and her children tremble in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. The House of Lancaster has won the crown, but York will not go quietly. Desperate to reclaim his throne, Edward lands at Ravenspur with a half-drowned army and his brother Richard at his side. Every hand is against them, every city gate is shut, yet the brothers York go on the attack. But neither sees that their true enemy is Henry Tudor, now grown into a man. As the Red Dragon - 'the man of destiny' - his claim to the throne leads to Bosworth Field and a battle that will call an end to the Wars of the Roses . . . 'A tough, pacy chronicle of bloody encounters, betrayals and cruelties. Superb' Daily Mail 'Iggulden is in a class of his own when it comes to epic, historical fiction' Daily Mirror 'Superb, fantastic, extraordinary' Sunday Express

A bestseller in 1945, this book has been out of print for over thirty years Like Wescott’s extraordinary novella The Pilgrim Hawk (which Susan Sontag described in The New Yorker as belonging “among the treasures of 20th-century American literature”), Apartment in Athens concerns an unusual triangular relationship. In this story about a Greek couple in Nazi-occupied Athens who must share their living quarters with a German officer, Wescott stages an intense and unsettling drama of accommodation and rejection, resistance and compulsion—an account of political oppression and spiritual struggle that is also a parable about the costs of closeted identity.