Pompeii - first UK edition

by Richard Harris - signed

Harris takes a familiar historical event (there, the celebrated code - breakers at Bletchley Park, here the volcanic obliteration of an Italian city in AD79) and seamlessly weaves a characteristically labyrinthine plot in and around the existing facts. But that's not all he does here: few novelists who (unlike Harris) make a specialty of ancient history for their setting pull off the sense of period quite as impressively as the author does here. As the famous catastrophe approaches, we are pleasurably immersed in the sights, sounds and smells of the Ancient World, each detail conjured with jaw-dropping verisimilitude. A brilliantly orchestrated thriller-cum-historical recreation that plays outrageous tricks with the reader's expectations.

Book has navy boards with the title in gold on the spine. Map-decorated end papers; Signed by the author on the title page.

Jacket is price-intact at £17.99, protected.