The Book Plank

Author interview with Henry Venmore-Rowland By chance I stumbeld upon The Last Ceasar of Henry Venmore-Rowland while browsing the Transworld/Bantam Press catalogue. But on the first go I knew it was a book for me. I have been catching up with a lot of Roman fiction lately and I am pleased to see how these stories are told. What makes Henry Venmore-Rowlands books even more impressive is the fact that when his first book was acquired he was only 21. From the writing style he uses this is hardly noticeable. The books are written with a clear confidence and a very strong narration. If these are just his first books, be sure to keep an eye out for future works! I know I will.   Author bio:  Aside from the occasional family holiday, often to Italy, his only escape from school and village life was in the pages of historical fiction. His fascination with military and political history, the kings and battles approach, somehow got him into Oxford to read Ancient & M...

The Sword and the Throne by Henry Venmore-Rowland, Aulus Caecina Severus #2 AD 69. Aulus Caecina Severus has thrown in his lot with the hedonistic Vitellius and prepares his legions for a gruelling march over the Alps. Driven by the desire to repay the treachery of his former patron, the Emperor Galba, and to keep his rival Valens in check, Severus leads his army against barbarian rebellions and against the mountains themselves in his race to reach Italy first. With the vast Po valley almost in sight, news reaches the army that Galba has been killed in a coup, and that Otho has been declared Emperor by the Praetorians who he had bribed to murder their own emperor. But there is no turning back for Severus, even if he wanted to. The Rhine legions want their man on the throne, and they won't stop until they reach Rome itself. Even once Otho is defeated, the battle for supremacy between Severus and Valens is far from over. The politics of the court and the mob is t...

The Last Caesar by Henry Venmore-Rowland, Aulus Caecina Severus #1 AD 68. The tyrant emperor Nero has no son and no heir. Suddenly there's the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more. But the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many. Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus. Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue -- all supposedly for the good of Rome. The boundary between the good of Rome and self preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician. And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played -- for good or ill -- in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy a...