Harry Sidebottom | |
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| Born | Newmarket,Suffolk,England |
| Occupation | Author, historian |
| Genre | History, fiction, non-fiction |
| Notable works | Warrior of Rome |
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| harrysidebottom | |
Harry Sidebottom is a British author and historian, best known for his two series of historical novels theWarrior of Rome,[1] andThrone of the Caesars. He is Quondam Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History atSt. Benet's Hall,Oxford, and lecturer atLincoln College.[2]
Sidebottom was born inCambridge and brought up inNewmarket,Suffolk, where his father worked as a racehorse trainer. He attended Fairstead House School, Newmarket, andKing's Ely.[3]
Sidebottom read Ancient History for his first degree, atLancaster University (1977–1980). He was awarded an MPhil in 1982 from theUniversity of Manchester and later a DPhil from the University of Oxford. He studied atCorpus Christi College, where he is a member of the senior common room. He has written for The Times, Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Literary Review, El Pais, and The Irish Times, and contributed to several scholarly journals, including Classical Quarterly, Journal of Roman Studies, Classical Review, L`Antiquite Classique, and Historia: Zeitschrift fuer Alte Geschichte. He has appeared as a presenter on theHistory Channel'sAncient Discoveries.[4]
From the beginning Sidebottom intended theWarrior of Rome to be a series structured in trilogies.[2] The first three volumes take place in the Middle East and subsequent arcs are set around theBlack Sea, the Baltic, Sicily, North Africa, and Italy.[4] Sidebottom stated he drew inspiration for the series from historical writerTacitus and commented that he had based several of the series' elements on real people and events from history.[4] The series has sold well, withFire in the East selling over 100,000 copies and spending five weeks in the UK top 10 upon its release.[5] Worldwide the series has sold over half a million copies.
The Last Hour is a thriller set in the City of Rome. It was shortlisted for the Historical Writers Association Gold Crown for the outstanding historical novel of 2018.
The Burning Road, a new novel featuring Ballista, was published on 30 September 2021. The series centres on the Anglo-Roman soldier Marcus Clodius Ballista (a fictionalized version ofBalista, a.k.a. Callistus, one of theThirty Tyrants) as he must live through and survive the machinations of theRoman Empire and several of the crises of the second half of the third century AD.[6]
Sidebottom has written another series set in ancient Rome and its empire calledThrone of the Caesars. The new trilogy is set 30 years before the firstWarrior of Rome book in the reigns ofSeverus Alexander andMaximinus Thrax (AD 235–38) beginning with the assassination of Alexander and ending with the deaths ofPupienus andBalbinus.
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