Alexander
God, King, Man
Published on 4. June 2026
Book
Hardback
480 pages
978-1-5266-5817-3 (ISBN)
Description
'A thrilling story, wonderfully told by one of the great historians' KEN FOLLETT
'Dazzling... This is biography of great brilliance and rare resonance' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
'A pulsating, vivid life of a true historical titan' DAN JONES
'A splendid book, lively, erudite... where myth and heroism meet' RORY STEWART
A stunningly written new biography of Alexander the Great, based on a series of important new discoveries and the author's own translations of source material from twelve ancient languages.
In 336 BCE, at the age of twenty, Alexander, a wide-eyed boy from the hills of Macedon, inherited a tumbledown kingdom, a pile of debts and an army which answered to nobody. Desperate to hold on to power, he led the army east, into the heart of the vast Persian Empire, and inadvertently began the greatest military campaign in history. The young man became a king, the king became a hero, the hero became a living god, and the god died aged thirty-two, broken-hearted in Babylon.
For centuries, historians have told his story, yet Alexander has remained a mystery. But now, the ruins of his cities have emerged from the bottom of the sea and the dust of Central Asian hillsides. The diaries of Babylonian astronomers who knew him have been deciphered. The tombs of his ancestors have been unearthed. For the first time, instead of the legend, we can meet Alexander the man.
Based on more than a decade of cutting-edge research, Alexander allows readers to feel the desert wind and experience the full horror of battle. Richardson's research has taken him from the catacombs of Egypt to the passes of Afghanistan. Alexander is a cinematic work of non-fiction: a revelatory retelling of one of the most famous and elusive stories in history.
'Dazzling... This is biography of great brilliance and rare resonance' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
'A pulsating, vivid life of a true historical titan' DAN JONES
'A splendid book, lively, erudite... where myth and heroism meet' RORY STEWART
A stunningly written new biography of Alexander the Great, based on a series of important new discoveries and the author's own translations of source material from twelve ancient languages.
In 336 BCE, at the age of twenty, Alexander, a wide-eyed boy from the hills of Macedon, inherited a tumbledown kingdom, a pile of debts and an army which answered to nobody. Desperate to hold on to power, he led the army east, into the heart of the vast Persian Empire, and inadvertently began the greatest military campaign in history. The young man became a king, the king became a hero, the hero became a living god, and the god died aged thirty-two, broken-hearted in Babylon.
For centuries, historians have told his story, yet Alexander has remained a mystery. But now, the ruins of his cities have emerged from the bottom of the sea and the dust of Central Asian hillsides. The diaries of Babylonian astronomers who knew him have been deciphered. The tombs of his ancestors have been unearthed. For the first time, instead of the legend, we can meet Alexander the man.
Based on more than a decade of cutting-edge research, Alexander allows readers to feel the desert wind and experience the full horror of battle. Richardson's research has taken him from the catacombs of Egypt to the passes of Afghanistan. Alexander is a cinematic work of non-fiction: a revelatory retelling of one of the most famous and elusive stories in history.
Reviews / Votes
Meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, Richardson's Alexander is a triumph of scholarship and storytelling. The text is so lively, the insights so revealing, I felt as if I was reading about Alexander for the first time -- TOBY WILKINSON, author of The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra A thrilling story, wonderfully told by one of the great historians -- KEN FOLLETT A compelling account of one of history's greatest figures. Edmund Richardson has made full use of new discoveries in describing the life of Alexander, while conveying the tension and drama that accompanied his achievements and tragedies. Highly readable, enjoyable and authoritative -- WILLIAM HAGUE A pulsating, vivid life of a true historical titan. Alexander loomed over the world he conquered and the imagination of every great ruler who came after him. In this marvellous book, he has found a biographer with the scholarly insight and narrative verve to bring him thundering onto the page -- DAN JONES, bestselling author of Henry V A splendid book, lively, erudite, steeped in the vast non-European world which Alexander encountered. A book where myth and heroism meet -- RORY STEWART Alexander rides again into battle in this dazzling new masterpiece by one of our most talented young classicists. Edmund Richardson presents his deep research in a rich cornucopia of ancient languages with wonderfully visual and evocative prose, deep learning and a talent for gripping narrative. Impossibly colourful, wonderfully well written and drawing on some extraordinary new sources, this is biography of great brilliance and rare resonance -- WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Golden Road Edmund Richardson has written an absorbing and thorough new take [on Alexander], for which he translated material from 12 languages... and added new understanding from recent archaeological finds ... All this adds colour to Richardson's task of retelling the saga of Alexander massacring everyone he meets in a fresh way -- PATRICK KIDD * THE TIMES * A rip-roaring cradle-to-(drunken)-grave look at Alexander ... It is brutal, violent and staggeringly bloody. It is, in other words, splendid fun ... Where there is a good story to tell, Mr Richardson does not deconstruct or critique it. He tells it, with gusto ... This book, which combines analysis with good old-fashioned fun, offers a lesson in how history can be both academically ambitious and readable * ECONOMIST * [A] magnificent new biography of this extraordinary man... written in Richardson's dreamy, questing, ornate prose. Surely one of the history books of the year * UNSEEN HISTORIES *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
740 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-5817-3 (9781526658173)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2026
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€21.49
Available for download
Person
Edmund Richardson is Professor of Classics at Durham University. He studied for his PhD in Classics at Cambridge and took a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton. In researching this book, he translated material from twelve ancient languages including Aramaic, Greek, Babylonian and Sanskrit. In 2016, he was named one of the BBC New Generation Thinkers - one of ten academics selected nationwide. His previous book, Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost City, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021.