Richard Jefferies

Perhaps overshadowed by ‘The Clifton Chronicles’ and the ‘William Warwick’ series (who I think makes his debut / cameo in this novel) this is a masterpiece in storytelling which ranks up there with any of the authors novels. It’s a brilliant sliding doors set up with one protagonist (Alex/Sasha) in two different locations. The story alternates between the two but it’s so skilfully done as you finish one chapter you can’t wait for the next instalment every time. The characterisation is carefully drawn, the tales believable and grounded in historical events which drive the plot. I personally would rank Jeffery Archer at the forefront of entertaining writers and this wonderful book is well worth reading.

This is a strange book as though titled ‘Nero’ it’s more about his mother Agrippina and is setting the scene for what is to be a trilogy on his life/times. There isn’t a great deal of ‘action’ (battles), which the author does so well and thus it is simply a novelistic approach to a history, which could be gleaned from Wikipedia. Any novel that has Claudius as an important character stands in the shadow of Robert Graves and there is nothing in ‘Nero’ which isn’t done better in those works (& Simon Scarrow!) One leaves with the notion that the next two novels in this series are going to be superb - the author is at his best with strong characters brought vividly to life. This is a prologue & inessential. Or to put it another way in conclusion one is left with the thought ‘is that all there is?’