Harry Sidebottom

Harry Sidebottom was brought up in Newmarket, and was educated at various schools and universities, including Oxford, where he took his Doctorate in Ancient History at Corpus Christi College.

His main scholarly research interests are Greek culture under the Roman empire and warfare in classical antiquity. Since 2006 he has been working on the Warrior of Rome series of novels which are set in the Roman Empire during the Great Crisis of the Third Century AD. Harry's latest book, The Burning Road, was published in September by Zaffre and is also available from our catalogue.

Who were your heroes as you were growing up and when did you first start writing? With your horseracing background were you ever tempted to go down the Dick Francis route?

As a young boy my heroes were Biggles and Bulldog Drummond. Later my admiration shifted from characters to writers, like Alfred Duggan and Mary Renault. It was not so much starting writing as not stopping when schools shift children from writing their own stories to studying those of others. As my father was a trainer in Newmarket, one day I will write a novel set in horse racing.

What is your writing routine and how do you fit in the writing around your teaching commitments?

Writing is a job, and it has to be approached as such. Six days a week I am at my desk by 10am and leave about 6pm. My College at Oxford is very considerate about letting me have time to write.

You strive for historical accuracy in your research and visit and experience the places you describe. How did you cope during lockdown?

The novel I wrote during lockdown – The Burning Road – Is set on Sicily. Luckily I have visited the island on several previous trips.

Can you give Suffolk readers a flavour of your new book The Burning Road?

Ballista – the hero of seven previous novels – is shipwrecked on the West coast of Sicily into the chaos of a slave revolt. His family are on the East coast. Ballista has to race against time across the spine of the island to try and save them. To ratchet up the tension, he has one of his teenage sons with him.

Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?

I am writing two books: The Shadow King is a novel of Alexander the Great; Sex and Death: Heliogabalus and the Decadence of Rome is a biography of Rome's maddest emperor.

One book or author that everyone should read?

An impossible question, there are so many. But I will pick A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov – a Russian classic that evokes an entire world, and covers different genres, within such a short book.

The best and worst things about being a published author are....?

The best might be when readers tell you your book has changed their life, or at least got them through a tough time. The worst would be the online trolls.

Your favourite place in Suffolk?

May I chose two? Newmarket, my hometown – it is hard not to fall for the seedy glamour of racing. At the other end of the county, Aldeburgh, the perfect seaside resort, with one of the best fish and chip shops in the world (the other now Hendo's in Bury St Edmunds).

Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?

A few readers might have guessed that I have a fear of confined spaces, because I made Ballista claustrophobic.