"Holland wears his impressive scholarship lightly; Persian Fire is unputdownable.” Lucy Moore, Daily Mail

 

“All the elements that made the first book so exhilarating – his erudition, his cynicism, and above all his narrative zest – are present and correct in the new one, and the book contains one moment of drama (his description of the Athenian charge at the battle of Marathon as seen from inside the Greek hoplites’ helmets) that will give you goosebumps.” History Books of the Year, Sunday Times

 

“My most exciting historical narrative.” Jan Morris, Book of the Year, Observer

 

“A great account of the Persian wars, and how a tiny Greece beat back Xerxes and his armada — not triumphalist but not politically correct either, and written by a great stylist for a wide audience.” Victor Davis Hanson, National Review

 

“A brilliant book. The prose is fresh, ornate, rich in metaphor, yet always clear and concise… Persian Fire is breathtakingly exciting, immensely informative, and resonating with lessons for the present.” Neil Faulkner, Current World Archaeology

 

“A piece of relentlessly exciting historical storytelling.” Financial Times

 

“A first-rate work of accessible scholarship… I know nothing that brings this ancient history to life better than this book.” Mark Golden, The Toronto Globe and Mail

 

“A riveting narrative of the ancient world… Holland is a superbly gifted storyteller who brings the world of the Persian wars to life.” History Books of the Year, Daily Telegraph

 

“Excellent… Holland is a cool-headed historian who writes here no less authoritatively and engagingly on classical Greece than he did on ancient Rome in his last book, Rubicon. There is an even-handedness in his treatment of both Greek and Persian cultural riches that is rare.” Mary Beard, Sunday Times

 

“Masterly and gripping… In his preface, Tom Holland expresses the hope that his “attempt to build a bridge between the worlds of academic and general readership does not end up appearing as vainglorious as did the two-mile pontoon which Xerxes built from Asia to Europe”. On the contrary. He has conquered this new territory with more power and panache than any platform-heeled King of Kings.” Independent on Sunday

 

“The battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis may have taken place more than 2,000 years ago, but Tom Holland was there, no doubt about it. He writes with a startling immediacy, and his battles are nail-biting cliff-hangers even if you know who’s going to win.” Artemis Cooper, Book of the Year, Evening Standard

 

“Tom Holland’s panoramic and gripping book is an unequivocal argument for the relevance of ancient history… He has opened up a world for me and I am grateful.” Observer

 

“Vibrant, bloodthirsty popular history, told with a rich sense of irony and irresistible narrative timing… The account of the Battle of Thermopylae is surely the most exciting in print.” Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph

 

“A pleasure for both general readers and the learned.” James Buchan, Guardian

 

“Persian history comes grippingly to life.” Robert McCrum, Picks of the Year, Observer

 

“Notably fair and shrewd… Persian Fire makes good on the promise that Holland displayed in his Roman epic, Rubicon.” Boyd Tompkin, History Books of the Year, Independent

 

“A magisterial account of the Greek-Persian wars, told with great authority and a novelistic colour and verve.” Christopher Hart, Book of the Year, Independent on Sunday

 

“A sober and balanced narrative… Holland has a sense for the golden moment, is a widely read intellectual, shows a keen wit – and the result is an engaging story that the general public will find worth relearning.” Times Literary Supplement

 

“When a global superpower again has the confidence to spread its ways to the ends of the earth, Holland sees every reason to look at the first such power to have such an aim. When we cheerfully start wars to promote democracy, he offers a clear-eyed view of the wars in which democracy began.” Peter Stothard, Times

 

“Readable history at its best.” Kate Mosse, Book of the Year, Independent on Sunday

 

“The Persian Wars are one of the great ‘David and Goliath’ struggles of history, with a particular resonance today as the first truly historical clash between East and West. In the sweep and vividness of his prose Tom Holland does the subject proud.” J. F. Lazenby, Literary Review

 

“Incendiary stuff… sparkling insight and no less sparkling writing.” Paul Cartledge, Independent

 

“Accessible, erudite narrative history that does a fine job of telling the story without swallowing the propaganda.” Scotland on Sunday

 

“It is a mark of Tom Holland’s success that, while the rest of us will find our pulses racing at this scintillating narrative of one of the great conflicts of the ancient world, a Greats examiner at Oxford could sit down with his pupils and chew over Holland’s flamboyant analysis of events with equal advantage.” Peter Jones, Sunday Telegraph

 

“Fab. Written in such a contemporary style, full of scholarship, about the relationship between the East and the West, stuff so dominant in our minds at the moment.” Tony Robinson, The Word