Ross King is a superb history storyteller.

He will be talking to me here at the Author Archive soon about his new book 'The Shortest History of Ancient Rome'.

His previous book is tells of a different dimension of Italian history. .'The Bookseller of Florence' is all about the surprising trade in manuscripts and books in Renaissance Italy.

Adrian Levy tells David about his visit to the Jade mines of Myanmar and the inhuman conditions that he found there.

This visit was 20 years ago and one can only hope that conditions have improved.

James Patterson is a phenomenon. His skill as a storyteller has made him very wealthy.

David Freeman met him in London to talk about his sixth Alex Ross story 'Roses are Red', when the paperback was first published in the UK.

Prince Andrew has been in the news. In this episode Hugo Vickers discusses his biography of Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece mother of the Duke of Edinburgh:

Donna Leon tells the story of her novel “Wilful Behaviour “ set in Venice:

R.J.B. Bosworth recounts his research into the life of Mussolini and Gitta Sereny remembers Germany in the 1930s as told in her book “The German Trauma”

We have seen the power of the political rally to stir followers. Gitta Sereny actually attended a Hitler rally.

With the spectre of authoritarianism on the rise again this is frighteningly relevant.

Lessons from history.