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Author

Simon Scarrow

1962

54 fiction

Simon Scarrow writes accessible military historical fiction, especially Roman army novels driven by campaigns, discipline and battlefield danger.

Simon Scarrow (born 1962) is a British historical novelist best known for military fiction set in the Roman Empire and the Napoleonic Wars. Born in Nigeria, he spent parts of his childhood in several countries before his family settled in Britain, an upbringing that gave him an early awareness of different cultures and historical landscapes. He later worked in the civil service, studied at the University of East Anglia and trained as a teacher. Scarrow went on to teach history and lecture in further education before becoming a full-time writer. That background is evident in the way his novels explain military organisation, political rivalries and the wider circumstances surrounding campaigns without slowing the narrative. His books are particularly concerned with soldiers as members of institutions: how discipline, rank, supply, leadership and personal loyalty affect men who are expected to fight on behalf of distant rulers and political causes.

Scarrow began the Eagles of the Empire series with Under the Eagle in 2000. The novels follow the experienced centurion Macro and the younger Cato through campaigns across the Roman world, beginning with the invasion of Britain under Emperor Claudius and later taking them to Germania, the eastern Mediterranean, Judaea and other imperial frontiers. The series combines large-scale battles with intelligence missions, political intrigue and rivalry within the Roman army and imperial court. Scarrow has also written the Revolution quartet, tracing the parallel careers of Napoleon Bonaparte and Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, from their youth to their confrontation at Waterloo. His young-adult Gladiator series follows Marcus Cornelius Primus through the brutal world of slavery and arena combat in the late Roman Republic, while other novels and series range into the Second World War and additional periods of military history. Across his fiction, Scarrow repeatedly explores comradeship, command, ambition and survival, with particular attention to the practical mechanics of organised warfare and the experiences of soldiers operating within much larger political struggles.

Periods and events

Battle of Trafalgar1805-10-21 Battle of Waterloo1815-06-18 Battle of Watling Street61 CE Boudican Revolt60–61 CE Crusades1095–1291 CE Julio-Claudian Dynasty27 BCE–68 CE Military Ordersc. 1119–1500 CE Napoleonic Era1792–1815 CE Peninsular War1807–1814 CE Reign of Claudius41–54 CE Roman Conquest of Britain43–87 CE Roman Republic509–27 BCE Third Servile War73–71 BCE World War II1939–1945 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Simon Scarrow (7 series)

Wellington and Napoleon Quartet in Order

by Simon Scarrow 4 books 4.6(5,527)

The quartet traces the parallel lives of Arthur Wellesley and Napoleon Bonaparte from their births in 1769 to the Battle of Waterloo. It follows their military education, political ambition and campaigns across Europe, India and the Mediterranean as two very different officers become the defining commanders of the…

Eagles of the Empire in Order

by Simon Scarrow 24 books 4.5(104,359)

The Eagles of the Empire series follows Roman soldiers Macro and Cato from the reign of Claudius into that of Nero. Their service takes them through the invasion and occupation of Britain, Mediterranean piracy, revolt, imperial court intrigue and Rome’s eastern wars, combining military campaigning with the politics…

CI Schenke in Order

by Simon Scarrow 4 books 4.4(14,111)

The CI Schenke novels follow Berlin criminal inspector Horst Schenke during the Second World War. A professional detective who has avoided joining the Nazi Party, Schenke must solve ordinary crimes inside a dictatorship whose police, party and security organisations protect the powerful and turn private secrets into mortal…

Warrior in Order

by Simon Scarrow 6 books 4.4(6,674)

The Warrior sequence tells the life of Caratacus from his youth as a prince of the Catuvellauni through Druid training, tribal conflict and resistance to the Roman invasion. The story is framed partly by his later exile in Rome, where the defeated British ruler looks back on the…

Gladiator in Order

by Simon Scarrow 4 books 4.4(3,598)

The Gladiator novels follow the young Marcus Cornelius Primus in the final decades of the Roman Republic. Enslavement, gladiatorial training and the search for his abducted mother draw him into the rivalries surrounding Julius Caesar, Pompey and the continuing memory of Spartacus’s revolt.

Pirata in Order

by Simon Scarrow 5 books 4.2(5,817)

The Pirata novellas follow Telemachus, an orphan who joins a Mediterranean trading crew in AD 25 and is driven into piracy by violence, betrayal and Roman corruption. Across the sequence he develops from inexperienced sailor to commander while rival pirate bands and the Roman fleet compete for control…

Roman Arena in Order

by Simon Scarrow 5 books 4.2(4,197)

The Roman Arena novellas follow the disgraced aristocrat Pavo and the legionary Macro in Rome during the accession of Claudius. Gladiatorial contests, court manipulation and rivalry inside the arena turn public entertainment into an extension of imperial politics.

Historical fiction

Standalone historical fiction by Simon Scarrow (2 books)

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