Why am I passionate about this?

I love history and languages from the first time my school classes opened my eyes to them and it has stayed with me ever since. Learning Latin helped me to understand how these people talked and how they thought and expressed themselves. It didn’t matter what, whether the daily lives of Romans and how they built their empire. It has coloured my thinking, and helped me in writing all my books that take place during the past, whether in Roman life or medieval warfare.


I wrote

Yesterdays

By Jim Carr,

Book cover of Yesterdays

What is my book about?

When Beth Westood suddenly found herself in London in a new century with a new name, she had no idea…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Last of the Wine

Jim Carr Why did I love this book?

If you think our wars are long and drawn out, the 25-year war between Athens and Sparta at the time of Athenian power in ancient Greece. The story is told by Alexis, born at a time of plague and the outset of the war. Alexias is born to a rich family and takes part in all the big events that shaped the outcome of the war. The book traces his adventures from his school days and how he witnessed the great naval battle in the Great Harbour, how he was captured and buried his father on his return. There are also references to Alicabides, a prominent figure in Athens at the time.

The Last of the Wine is more than about battles. It also offers great insights into how lived beyond the constant battles that pepper the book and coming to know some of the key Athenian statesmen who come alive in the book. If you like reading about ancient times, as I do, you'll find The Last of the Wine fascinating.

By Mary Renault,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Last of the Wine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Athens and Sparta, the mighty city states of ancient Greece, locked together in a quarter century of conflict: the Peloponnesian War. Alexias the Athenian was born, passed through childhood and grew to manhood in those troubled years, that desperate and dangerous epoch when the golden age of Pericles was declining into uncertainty and fear for the future. Of good family, he and his friends are brought up and educated in the things of the intellect and in athletic and martial pursuits. They learn to hunt and to love, to wrestle and to question. And all the time his star of…


Book cover of Shōgun

Jim Carr Why did I love this book?

The year is 1600 and finds the hero, Blackthorn shipwrecked just off the shores of Japan. He has a front-row seat in the turbulent metamorphosis of Japan’s society from a society of medieval fiefdoms to a more modern country and the quest of a warlord to unite these fiefdoms and become the Shogun or supreme military commander. The story is told over two books and became a smash TV series.

Clavell works in Japanese phrases in a way it’s understandable by English readers but for me, as an old Latin student, he has Blackthorn and Mariko, who is his guide to various places, speak in Latin. And later in the book, Maiko also speaks Portuguese, which she had learned from a Jesuit, who was also in Japan at this time.

I loved everything about the book—from start to finish. It's Japan as it's emerging from the Middle Ages and how the warrior class lived—but most of all, its fast-moving plot and insights into its culture that still exist today and make the characters come alive.

By James Clavell,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Shōgun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Clavell never puts a foot wrong . . . Get it, read it, you'll enjoy it mightily' Daily Mirror

This is James Clavell's tour-de-force; an epic saga of one Pilot-Major John Blackthorne, and his integration into the struggles and strife of feudal Japan. Both entertaining and incisive, SHOGUN is a stunningly dramatic re-creation of a very different world.

Starting with his shipwreck on this most alien of shores, the novel charts Blackthorne's rise from the status of reviled foreigner up to the hights of trusted advisor and eventually, Samurai. All as civil war looms over the fragile country.

'I can't…


Book cover of Let the Emperor Speak

Jim Carr Why did I love this book?

And speak Caesar Augustus does with a number of prominent figures, including Cleopatra, Mark Anthony, Tiberius, Cicero, and even Virgil. His comments and asides let us know what he really thinks of them. He lets you know that the war with Pompey is a distraction and a bore. His comments are blunt and reveal a strong, wily individual completely in control of the Latin empire, and written in a way that, at times, you forget you’re not reading a history book but fiction.

It was comments like this regarding his meeting with Cleopatra that make the book rewarding: 

“I felt her power, her quite remarkable seductiveness. It was like listening to the deepest, most desirable temptation; it held promises of bliss and power. I understood how Anthony had found himself caught like a beast in a net. I looked away…”

By Allan Massie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Let the Emperor Speak as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Let the Emperor Speak


Book cover of A Column of Fire

Jim Carr Why did I love this book?

Like Ken Follett’s other books on medieval England, A Column of Fire is easy to read. The plot runs smoothly and quickly in a way that keeps you glued to the book until you finish it. This time he zeros in on the religious turmoil that gripped Tudor England on the death of Queen Mary. Elizabeth’s ascension was challenged by Catholics who wanted to see Mary, Queen of Scots as the rightful heir to the throne, as well as by the king of Spain, who had another score to settle when he sent a massive armada to conquer England. 

A Column of Fire is a novel but it doesn’t stop Follett, a former journalist with a passion for accuracy, from peeking into the lives of even minor characters into corners I was not aware of. I like Follett’s writing style – easy to read, fast-paced with one new character after another. 

By Ken Follett,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked A Column of Fire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Absorbing . . . impossible to resist." -The Washington Post

As Europe erupts, can one young spy protect his queen? #1 New York Times bestselling author Ken Follett takes us deep into the treacherous world of powerful monarchs, intrigue, murder, and treason with his magnificent new epic, A Column of Fire.

In 1558, the ancient stones of Kingsbridge Cathedral look down on a city torn apart by religious conflict. As power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty, and love.

Ned Willard wants nothing more than to…


Book cover of A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Jim Carr Why did I love this book?

When most of us think about the 14th Century, we see it as a time of chivalry, knights, and crusades. It was anything but for most people who feared the ending of the world. It was everything that was with us still, whether corruption in high places or taxes. But it also had bankers, saints, mystics, and all the good and bad things that are with us today.  

I read Barbara Tuchman’s book over a period of two months. It was a wonderful read. Each chapter offers a glimpse of the events and happenings that shaped the world as we came to know it. If you’re interested in medieval Europe, the book is a wonderful gift. It is also a book of surprises. I was intrigued to learn that “people knew the world was a globe before Columbus, where “a man could go around the world as a fly makes the tour of an apple.” 

By Barbara W. Tuchman,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked A Distant Mirror as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The fourteenth century was a time of fabled crusades and chivalry, glittering cathedrals and grand castles. It was also a time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world of chaos and the plague.

Here, Barbara Tuchman masterfully reveals the two contradictory images of the age, examining the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes and war dominated the lives of serf, noble and clergy alike.

Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries and guilty passions, Tuchman recreates the lives of proud cardinals,…


Explore my book 😀

Yesterdays

By Jim Carr,

Book cover of Yesterdays

What is my book about?

When Beth Westood suddenly found herself in London in a new century with a new name, she had no idea she would fall desperately in love with a highwayman, who nursed her through the Black Plague, and then suddenly disappeared.

If only she had a way to contact him but he turned up when she least expected it. When she received word that he was badly burned in a different area of London, she braved desperate mobs, cutthroats, and the cinders of London's still-burning streets to get to him, sick inside whether she would reach him in time.

Book cover of The Last of the Wine
Book cover of Shōgun
Book cover of Let the Emperor Speak

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Book cover of Victoria Unveiled

Shane Joseph Author Of Victoria Unveiled

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Shane's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A fast-paced literary thriller with a strong sci-fi element and loaded with existential questions. Beyond the entertainment value, this book takes a hard look at the perilous world of publishing, which is on a crash course to meet the nascent, no-holds-barred world of AI. Could these worlds co-exist, or will they destroy each other? And more importantly, how will humans tolerate their own creations, the robots, on this planet?

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Interested in the Middle Ages, nobility, and Augustus?

The Middle Ages 432 books
Nobility 88 books
Augustus 14 books