Fire from Heaven

INTRODUCED BY TOM HOLLAND

He stood between death and life as between night and morning, and thought with a soaring rapture, 'I am not afraid'.

Alexander is born to rule. Caught in a power struggle for his loyalty between his mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, his childhood teaches him politics and vengeance, honing his natural gifts into the makings of a king. Aristotle's tutoring sharpens his mind and fires his ambitions, while his passionate love for the devoted Hephastion teaches him how to trust. At eighteen, Alexander is already battle-hardened, the commander of Macedon's cavalry - and when his father is murdered, he must draw on all his skill, strength and fiery ambition to claim his destiny.

In the first novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly reimagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend.

'This is not just a novel: it's also the best imagining we are ever likely to have of a man who tore up history' EMILY WILSON

'Lyrical, wise, compelling . . . a wonderful imaginative feat' SARAH WATERS

'The Alexandriad is one of the twentieth century's most unexpectedly original works of art' GORE VIDAL