Tom Holland was born in 1968. He was brought up in the village of Broadchalke, outside Salisbury in Wiltshire, England. He studied at Cambridge and Oxford universities. He currently lives in London with his wife, two daughters, and two cats.
His novels, most of which have a strong supernatural element, are set in various periods of history, ranging from ancient Egypt to 1880s London. He is also the author of three highly praised works of history. The first, Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. His book on the Graeco-Persian wars, Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West, won the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award in 2006. His new book, Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom, was published to great critical acclaim in the autumn of 2008.
He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. He is currently working on a translation of Herodotus for Penguin Classics. In 2007, he was the winner of the 2007 Classical Association prize, awarded to 'the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome'."
He is on the committee of the Society of Authors and the Classical Association.
