Book description
A compelling story of heroism told through eight famous lives - from
Achilles to Sir Francis Drake - which demonstrates the continuing
importance of the need for heroes in the modern age.
Beginning beneath the walls of Troy, ending in 1930s Europe, 'Heroes'
is a compelling evocation of heroism through eight famous lives -
Achilles, Odysseus, Alcibiades, Cato, El Cid, Francis Drake, Wallenstein
and Garibaldi.
Not necessarily all good - sometimes quite the reverse - but all great,
they possessed a charisma, a strength of will powerful enough to
persuade those around them that they alone could do the incredible and unprecedented.
It is a story of morality and dictatorship; money and sorcery;
seduction and mass hysteria. 'Vivid and highly readable, here are
biographies that thrill, enthral and dazzle.' Observer
'A bold, witty and thought-provoking book.' Victoria Glendinning, Daily Telegraph
'Both rich in material and riveting to read.' Antonia Fraser, Sunday Times
'Compendious and stupendous…it will leave you quite flushed and
breathless, wondering what kind of world produced such men.' Independent
on Sunday Lucy Hughes-Hallett is the author of Cleopatra: Histories,
Dreams and Distortions which was published in 1990 to wide acclaim,
Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen, published in 2004, which
garnered similar praise, and The Pike, publishing in 2013. Cleopatra won
the Fawcett Prize and the Emily Toth Award. Lucy Hughes-Hallett reviews
for the Sunday Times. She lives in London.
