At 20, when his reign began, Alexander the Great was already a seasoned soldier and a complex man. Mary Renault explores the years that shaped him.

Resolute, fearless and the inheritor of a striking beauty, Alexander still needed much to make him ‘Great’. He must survive - though with lifelong scars - the dark furies of his Dionysiac mother, who kept him uncertain even of his own paternity; he must respect his father’s talent for war and kingcraft, despite disgust for his sexual proclivities; and he must come to terms with his heritage from both.

Mary Renaul’s 1970 novel was one of the six books shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker, in 2010.

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Arrow
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Mary Renault

Mary Renault

About the Author

Mary Renault was born Eileen Mary Challans, in London. She was best known for her historical novels set in ancient Greece.
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