INTRO

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO is a lawyer in the late Roman Republic. When we meet him, he is 27, and his talent and ambitions are thwarted by his stammer and physical frailty. With his father's servant, Tiro, the novel's narrator, he travels to Athens to study philosophy and rhetoric from the Greek masters. On his return, he marries Terentia, who is plain, strong-willed and has the one million sesterces necessary for him to stand for the Senate. By the time of his election, he is considered the second-best advocate in Rome. Before taking his seat, he must complete a year's government service as a quaestor (junior magistrate) and is sent to Sicily. On his return he is convinced that his successes will have made him the talk of Rome but on landing he is snubbed by a group of rich aristocrats. This humiliation hardens his resolve to achieve imperium - ultimate power within the Roman state.

READ ON: ROBERT HARRIS'S FICTION

FATHERLAND 1992
It is 1964, the week leading up to Adolf's 75th birthday, and the naked body of an old man is floating, lifeless, in a lake in Berlin. An SS detective sets out to investigate and, together with an American journalist, he begins to uncover some uncomfortable evidence. Maybe the Jews aren't living in Eastern European obscurity after all. "A writer who handles suspense like a literary Alfred Hitchcock" Nelson Mandela, The Guardian

ENIGMA 1995
The spring of 1943, and the boffins at Bletchley Park are racing against time to crack a key U-boat code to prevent a crucial convoy being blown up in mid-Atlantic. Tom Jericho is having a go with the best of them, when his girlfriend disappears. Is she a spy? Why are some of the messages disappearing? And what's going on in Poland? "Blends carefully researched fact with brilliantly realised fiction. A compulsive pageturner" The Daily Mail

ARCHANGEL 1998
Having chronicled the Hitler diaries spoof of 1983 in his book Selling Hitler, Harris invents a different secret notebook. This one belongs to Stalin. A middle-aged, hard-drinking former Oxford historian (based in part on Norman Stone, by all accounts) catches wind of it, and makes his way from Moscow to the forests surrounding the White Sea port of Archangel to sniff it out. What's inside? "His strongest yet, confirming him as the leading current exponent of the intelligent literary thriller'" The Times

POMPEII 2003
For Rome's rich, the Bay of Naples is the summer resort of choice. There they congregate to feast and throw around their cash. For Marcus Attilius, an engineer in charge of the area's aqueduct, things aren't going to plan. His predecessor has mysteriously disappeared, springs are failing, and the aqueduct has ceased to flow. Meanwhile a volcano simmers away in the background. "As explosive as Etna, as addictive as a thriller, as satisfying as great history" Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Daily Telegraph

NONFICTION
A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (with Jeremy Paxman), 1982
Gotcha! The Government, the Media and the Falklands Crisis, 1983
The Making of Neil Kinnock, 1984
Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries, 1986
Good and Faithful Servant: The Unauthorized Biography of Bernard Ingham, 1990

SPECIAL OFFER:
IMPERIUM is published on September 4 by Hutchinson, 403pp, £17.99 To buy Imperium at the special BooksFirst price of £15.99 inc p&p, call 0870 1608080 or buy the book here