Ernle Bradford, the author of best-selling THE GREAT SIEGE, turns his attention to one of the greatest, and most misguided, explorers the world has ever known.

Long before he made his fateful crossing of the Atlantic, Christopher Columbus learned his seamanship as a young man in the Mediterranean and then in the service of the King of Portugal. But soon his eyes turned to the ocean and what lay beyond. Opposition to his idea of finding the East by sailing west was based on differing ideas of the size–and shape–of the world. To the end of his days Columbus insisted that where his ship came aground was in the Indies, even when it became clear to his contemporaries that they were in fact in an area of the world previously unknown to Europeans.

Om Christopher Columbus Bradford portrays Columbus’s genius, stubbornness, greed and stupidity mixed with bravery and masterly navigation skills. A great book gives us a true and balanced portrait of a great explorer who forever changed the world.

A military genius worshiped for his courage; a fierce politician admired for his shrewdness and mercy; a brilliant writer and speaker. It’s no wonder that in his lifetime Julius Caesar held the positions of military tribune, praetor, consul, pro-consul and dictator. But even his astounding ambition could not make him emperor, though it did achieve the conquest of Cleopatra, ruler of the most fabulous kingdom in all of known civilization.

In this Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power, acclaimed historian Ernle Bradford steers away from the clichés and legends and cuts right to the heart of who Caesar really was – a man who based his entire existence on the pursuit of power.
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“Ernle Bradford’s new biography turns this ancient Roman from a face on old coins into an ambitious human being as lively–and at least as tricky–as any present-day Parliamentarian.” – Gerald Kaufman, Manchester Evening News

“…original and memorable…. This particular slant is rare, and has never to m knowledge been expressed wit such readability and such gusto…. The book is stunningly well written.” - Kenneth McLeish, Country Life

“Commendable work…interesting to the casual reader who merely wishes to be acquainted–for pleasure rather than study–with one of the most ambitious men who ever lived.” – Richard Gibbon, The Journal