Alexander

<p><b>'A thrilling story, wonderfully told by one of the great historians' </b>KEN FOLLETT<br><b>'Dazzling... This is biography of great brilliance and rare resonance'</b> WILLIAM DALRYMPLE<br><b>'A pulsating, vivid life of a true historical titan' </b>DAN JONES<br><b>'A splendid book, lively, erudite... where myth and heroism meet' </b>RORY STEWART<br><b><br>A stunningly written new biography of Alexander the Great, based on a series of important new discoveries and the author's own translations of source material from twelve ancient languages.</b><br><br>In 336 BCE, at the age of twenty, Alexander, a wide-eyed boy <b>from the hills of Macedon</b>, inherited a tumbledown kingdom, a pile of debts and an army which answered to nobody. Desperate to hold on to power, he led the army east, into the heart of <b>the vast Persian Empire</b>, and inadvertently began the greatest military campaign in history. The young man became a king, the king became a hero, the hero became a living god, and the god died aged thirty-two, broken-hearted in Babylon.<br><br> For centuries, historians have told his story, yet <b>Alexander has remained a mystery</b>. But now, the ruins of his cities have emerged from the bottom of the sea and the dust of Central Asian hillsides. The <b>diaries of Babylonian astronomers</b> who knew him have been deciphered. The tombs of his ancestors have been unearthed. For the first time, instead of the legend, we can meet Alexander the man.<br><br> Based on more than a decade of cutting-edge research, <i>Alexander</i> allows readers to feel the desert wind and experience the full horror of battle. Richardson's research has taken him from the catacombs of Egypt to the passes of Afghanistan. <b><i>Alexander</i></b><b> is a cinematic work of non-fiction: a revelatory retelling of one of the most famous and elusive stories in history.</b></p>