Robert Harris at Waterstone's Piccadilly
Story by Lizzie Guilfoyle
ON THURSDAY, October 15, 2009, best-selling author Robert Harris will be at Waterstone’s in Piccadilly to talk about his new novel, Lustrum.
Lustrum is set in Rome, 63 BC, when the city is on the brink of acquiring a vast empire, Cicero is consul, Caesar his ruthless young rival, Pompey the republic’s greatest general, Crassus its richest man, Cato a political fanatic, Catilina a psychopath, and Clodius an ambitious playboy.
The stories of these real historical figures – their alliances and betrayals, their cruelties and seductions, their brilliance and their crimes – are seen through the eyes of the novel’s narrator Tiro, a slave who serves as confidential secretary to Cicero and who knows all his master’s secrets – a dangerous position to be in.
From the discovery of a child’s mutilated body, through judicial execution and a scandalous trial, to the brutal unleashing of the Roman mob, Lustrum is described as a study in the timeless enticements and horrors of power.
Harris’ previous novels include Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, Imperium and The Ghost.
Admission to talk: £3 – redeemable against purchase.
Time: 6.30pm.
Read our review of Pompeii