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Act of Oblivion |
After the Stuart Restoration, the Parliamentarians were pardoned except for the 'regicides,' signatories of Charles I's death warrant. Many were dead or soon captured and executed, but two prominent regicides escape to America where fellow Puritans offer hiding places. On the run, they have an obsessed pursuer. Years go by. The fugitives live in increasing misery, while their pursuer contends with growing official indifference. A gripping story, building to a final dramatic confrontation and conveying much of the sadness of a lethally divided society.
(Tony Pratt - bwl 106 Autumn 2022) |
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An Officer and a Spy |
Harris excels in this fictionalised journal of Georges Picquard, the officer who, despite demotion, imprisonment and threats to his life uncovered the conspiracy that condemned Alfred Dreyfus as a traitor and a spy. Based on extensive research, the book shines a beacon on the attitudes and prejudices of the time which sent an innocent man to a living death on Devil's Island. A salutary lesson on corruption in high places, a commemoration of both men - it's a tour de force!
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 73 Summer 2014) |
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An Officer and a Spy |
The Dreyfus Affair, the setting for this atmospheric and compelling thriller. The historical accuracy of the infamous miscarriage of justice only adds to the excellence of the story-telling. Our hero is an up and coming army officer, intelligent and patriotic. A man of principle and dedication who himself becomes the victim of the corruption and anti-Semitism of the powerful army elite as he fights to expose the web of deceit within the French Establishment and the cruel injustice of Dreyfus's imprisonment on Devil's Island.
(Rebecca Howell - bwl 78 Autumn 2015) |
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Conclave |
With great respect, sensitivity and restraint, Harris has carefully reproduced in detail the traditional procedure of the election of a new Pope in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, without sacrificing any cultural and historical background, giving his characters their full religious scope while being, as usual, a master of thriller writing. Actually at least three books in one, the suspense is enormous and the denouement amazing. Even better than all his others - a triumph.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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Conclave |
Everybody should read this book Catholic or not! Papal conclaves are by nature clandestine affairs, but Robert Harris has done a great deal of research and produced as a result a plausible and brilliant novel. There is ambition, chauvinism, envy, conceit and over-confidence alongside humility, human understanding, kindness and true holiness. The final twist in the story is stunning!
(Veronica Edwards - bwl 88 Spring 2018) |
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Dictator |
Volume 3 of Harris's fictional biography of Cicero is, if possible, even better than the others. Narrated by Tiro - his secretary, one-time slave now a free Roman - based on Cicero's speeches and writings and Tiro's own work, this thrilling epic of the tumultuous events following the Republic's fall is also an intimate portrait of the brilliant orator, a hero for his time and ours. Harris surpasses himself and does great credit to the historian he really is.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 79 Winter 2016) |
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Enigma |
This totally gripping thriller is closely based on historical fact. Fiction blends seamlessly into the terrifyingly real drama of England's attempt to protect the convoys crossing the Atlantic by using the code-breaker Enigma captured from the Germans. A twist of genius as the author brings together two unexpected aspects of WW II, raising the tension to fever pitch and exposing the hypocrisy and expedience of war-time politics.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 33 February 2006) |
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Good and Faithful Servant - The Unauthorized Biography of Bernard Ingham |
Bernard Ingham was one of those people that rose to prominence without anyone really knowing how or why. This entertaining biography explains how a socialist firebrand and instinctive
'Tory-baiter' became Mrs. Thatcher's most trusted aide and far more valuable to her than most of her ministers. It is also illuminating in view of his recent attacks on the role of Alistair Campbell, who surely must have learned many lessons from this most faithful of servants.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 18 April 2003) |
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Imperium |
I loved this book about Cicero, the great writer and brilliant Roman lawyer, as it is told by his faithful slave, Tiro. So much better than a history book and twice as interesting.
(Laurence Martin Euler - bwl 39 April 2007) |
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Imperium |
I'm not a big fan of Robert Harris or political novels in general, but I really enjoyed this. Narrated by Tiro, Cicero's secretary, the huge amount of research and wealth of detail bring the characters and the Republic to life. I found the political intrigues thrilling and can now understand why Cicero is known as one of the greatest orators of all time. It ends just as Cicero becomes Consul, so I've started the second in the trilogy which I'm enjoying just as much. (Denise)
Ed Note: the second is Lustrum and the third Dictator
(Denise Lewis - bwl 83 Winter 2016) |
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Imperium |
The rise of the ambitious young Cicero as remembered by his now aged but still faithful secretary Tiro. The ruthless machinations of the Roman Republic are laid bare in a plausible novelisation of the known facts. And what a cast of memorable characters there are; Crassus, Pompey, Caesar and others, scheming and plotting to bring down the Republic and through sham populist promises and policies, establish themselves as Emperor. It all seems strangely contemporary too...
(Clive Yelf - bwl 98 Autumn 2020) |
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Lustrum |
This second volume of the trilogy, tests Cicero's authority to the limit as he confronts the conspirators' plot to overthrow the state of Rome. Cicero's eloquence, his greatest weapon, is the mainspring of his courage and genius which as an orator he uses to huge effect. This account based on the diaries of his secretary and slave is a riveting read - not for the squeamish.
(James Baker - bwl 90 Autumn 2018) |
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Munich |
One of the advantages of age is I can remember the reaction to Chamberlain's waving of that piece of white paper when he returned from Munich and heralded "peace in our time". We all know what followed. Harris imagines what actually took place in both camps and manages to bring home how different it might have been with invented characters speaking for brave Germans who just might have changed history's course. A riveting read, written by a master of the genre.
(James Baker - bwl 89 Summer 2018) |
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Pompeii |
This story is about a newly appointed engineer trying to correct a serious fault in the natural water supply via aqueducts and pipes threatening the 250,000 inhabitants in the region surrounding the Bay of Naples. He is thwarted by corrupt vested-interests; his life is in danger but he won't give up. He also senses something sinister about the mountain he is working on. It is 22 August 79 AD on the slopes of Vesuvius overlooking Pompeii ...
(James Baker - bwl 22 February 2004) |
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Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries |
Harris does a thrilling job of investigative journalism revealing how highly esteemed publishers were hoodwinked into authenticating the so-called Hitler Diaries. Dubbed the biggest fraud in publishing history, the scam could have easily been uncovered but Harris chillingly reveals the lengths to which people will go when they are blinded by greed and ambition. Based on interviews with the main participants, it sheds in itself a light on the last days of Hitler and beyond.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 66 Autumn 2012) |
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The Ghost |
Harris has produced a blood-chilling novel, not because of the violence, of which there is little, but because sailing very near the wind, this roman à clef has all too clearly the answers to today's political situation for which we have all been searching. Or does it? It is up to the reader to decide, and the surprises keep coming to the very last page, and even beyond . . . ? Very, very clever!
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 44 February 2008) |
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V 2 |
It was Rudi Graf's dream to send a rocket to the moon, instead he finds himself in charge of firing the deadly V2's pummelling London. In newly liberated Belgium, Kaye, a young Englishwoman is one of the WAAFs equipped with slide-rules and equations tasked with tracking them mid-flight. For Robert Harris fans this is a thrilling and immersive read.
(James Baker - bwl 99 Winter 2021) |
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