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Doctor Who - Byzantium!
Doctor Who - Byzantium!
Nov 5, 2025 6:55 AM

Author:Keith Topping

Doctor Who - Byzantium!

'Life is cheap in Byzantium. Life is cheap everywhere that the Romans are.'

Byzantium. The imperial city - rising dramatically, as if by a trick of the light, from the peninsula of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. Its domes and towers and minarets overlook a place of intrigue, lust, power, oppression, resistance and murder.

Romans, Greeks, Zealots, Pharisees...all meet in the market squares of the great city, but mutual loathing and suspicion are rife.

In this cauldron, the Doctor and his companions arrive, expecting to view the splendour and civilisation of the Roman empire. But events cast them into a deadly maelstrom of social and political upheaval. In the eye of the hurricane they must each face the possibility of being stranded, alone and far away from their own times, in an alien culture bunker.

Reviews

An absorbing, perceptive and moving tale that fans of The Memory Keeper's Daughter will lap up

—— Daily Mail

Beautifully plotted and breathtakingly accomplished

—— Daily Express

An emotional novel with lyrical touches

—— Sunday Times

A powerful saga

—— Good Housekeeping

An epic of discovery and deception

—— She

A page-turner

—— Red

A shocking backdrop if recent historical events, Andrea Eames has used a fresh, candid voice to create an intimate, sensitive and moving debut novel

—— Tina Jackson , Metro

In this assured debut novel, Eames draws on her own interrupted childhood...to paint an authentic portrait of a nation on the edge

—— Emma Hagestadt , Independent

The Cry of the Go-Away Bird is a promising debut novel, and Eames's own Zimbabwean childhood colours her writing with vivid descriptions of the earth, wildlife and Shona language

—— Syndicated Review across National Press

Remarkable story

—— TLS

The most original book I have read for quite a long time

—— Observer

Riverting ... both disturbing and entertaining, with twisted low-life chracters rivalling any created by Martin Amis or Nicola Barker

—— Leyla Sanai , Spectator

Sounds like a must-read

—— Reading Matters

Utterly remarkable…sad in its depth, but delightful on the shimmering surface… It might only be February, but there's going to need to be some strong competition in the months to come if this doesn't end up being my book of the year

—— The Bookbag

A wonderful survivor’s story… It’s excellent

—— Peter Murchie , British Journal of General Practice

This book is spooky, erotic and evocative. We loved it.

—— Richard & Judy , Daily Express

It is time we stopped thinking of the historical novel as a genre, and an inferior one at that. If its ostensible subject matter means that it doesn't attempt to tell us how we live now, nevertheless a novel set back in time may, if it is good, say as much about what it is to be alive as one set in the next street or another country today. Tides of War is such a novel. It is diverting, but not a diversion

—— The Spectator

A well written, engaging read...beautifully observed

—— History Today

A vivid account of a couple of years in the Peninsula Campaign and a sympathetic portrait of those left behind

—— Joanna Hines , Literary Review

A delicious novel by an experienced author who captures the scientific atmosphere of the early 19th century with a devastating study of infidelity

—— Colin Gardiner , Oxford Times

The real life players of the Napoleonic era spring to life

—— i

Compelling

—— Big Issue

Highly assured and almost educational with its broad sweep of history

—— Jane Housham , Guardian

Tillyard’s achievement is in this original portray log the Regency era and its relevance to our own time

—— Philippa Williams , The Lady

a very human tale about passion, secrets and lies.

—— Reading Matters

An achingly brilliant piece of writing on passion and delusion. It's a pleasure to read from start to finish and reignites our love for fiction

—— Independent
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