'A magnificent, cleverly argued book.' John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph 'Vivid and highly readable, here are biographies that thrill, enthral and dazzle.' Observer 'A bold, witty and thought-provoking book.' Daily Telegraph 'Both rich in material and riveting to read.' Antonia Fraser, Sunday Times 'A compendious and stupendous book' Independent on Sunday '[Heroes] bring(s) history to life. It offers the guilty pleasure of wondering at the undemocratic wildness of eight great men.'Guardian Praise for Lucy Hughes-Hallett's first book, Cleopatra: 'Brilliant and discursive.' Antonia Fraser, The Sunday Times 'Fascinating, wide-ranging, highly-coloured, hugely energetic.' Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph 'Lucy Hughes-Hallett writes very well, with a sometimes epigrammatic edge! Quite brilliantly she elicits from the publicised extravagance of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's real-life, jet-set reprise of Antony and Cleopatra, an essay on the spiritual worth of prodigality, seen as a Rabelaisian, Dionysian "holy foolishness" John Updike, New York Times 'A delightful book, written with grace and intelligence and brimming with entertaining illustrations and bizarre information' Christopher Hudson, Evening Standard

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is the author of Cleopatra: Histories, Dreams and Distortions which was published in 1990 to wide acclaim. Cleopatra won the Fawcett Prize and the Emily Toth Award. Lucy Hughes-Hallett reviews for the Sunday Times. This is her second book.