The Walls Of Byzantium - James Heneage

About the Book

IN AN AGE OF CLASHING EMPIRES, DARK FORCES FROM THE EAST ENDANGER THE FIRST LIGHT OF THE WESTERN RENAISSANCE...

It is an age of ruthless rulers, divided churches, fractured dynasties and intrepid traders. It is an age of great cities like Venice and Constantinople; an age of conquerors like Tamerlane who will drown the world in blood; an age when only a hero of exceptional gifts can make a difference.

Luke Magoris is that hero. A hero who will find himself committed to a long journey to discover - and try to avoid - his destiny. He will travel from battle to trading fortune, from horse dealing to captivity, and to the love of three very different women and the unrelenting enmity of two remarkable men.

About the Author

James Heneage is an historical fiction writer, and the co-founder of the Ottakar’s bookshop chain.

Between 1982-87 he worked in advertising, finishing as an Account Director for Ogilvy and Mather and in 1987 he founded the bookshop chain Ottakar’s which was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1998 and grew to a chain of 142 branches, employing some 2,500 people. The chain was sold to the HMV Group, then owner of Waterstones, in 2006 and that same year he was awarded The Random House Group Award for Outstanding Contribution to Bookselling. In 2007, he became chairman of the Cheltenham Literary Festival and three years later he co-founded the Chalke Valley History Festival, the largest festival devoted entirely to history in the UK. In 2010, Heneage became a full-time writer and also chaired the Costa Book Awards in 2014. His works include The Walls of Byzantium (2013), The Towers of Samarcand (2014), The Lion of Mistra (2015), By Blood Divided (2017) and A World on Fire (2018). He lives in Wiltshire and, for part of the year, in the Peloponnese, where he has written much of his fiction to date.