If you enjoyed Counting the Stars...
...then try these two for a bit of Ancient Roman escapism...
Imperium by Robert Harris
If you enjoyed Dunmore’s mesmerising love story set in ancient Rome, then this epic tale of a struggle for power and the disintegration of a society could be just what you’re looking for. Here, Ancient Rome – 'a city of glory built on a river of filth’ – teems with ambitious and ruthless men. None is more brilliant than Marcus Cicero. A rising young lawyer, backed by a shrewd wife, he decides to gamble everything on one of the most dramatic courtroom battles of all time. Win it, and he could win control of Rome itself. Lose it, and he is finished forever.
I Claudius by Robert Graves
One of the most celebrated historical and gripping novels set in Ancient Rome – if you haven’t read it, then now’s the time. Despised for his weakness and regarded by his family as little more than a stammering fool, the nobleman Claudius quietly survives the intrigues, bloody purges and mounting cruelty of the imperial Roman dynasties. In I, Claudius, he watches from the sidelines to record the reigns of its emperors: from the wise Augustus and his villainous wife Livia to the sadistic Tiberius and the insane excesses of Caligula. Written in the form of Claudius' autobiography, this is the first part of Robert Graves' brilliant account of the madness and debauchery of Ancient Rome.
