'You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?'

Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen (TEXT ONLY)

Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen (TEXT ONLY)

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

From the author of ‘The Pike’ – winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction – a compelling story of heroism told through eight famous lives that span from Achilles to Sir Francis Drake.

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.

Reviews of Heroes: Saviours, Traitors and Supermen (TEXT ONLY)

    • ‘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

More from Lucy Hughes-Hallett