| Language | English |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 1841198773 |
| ISBN-13 | 9781841198774 |
| No of pages | 236 |
| Font Size | Medium |
| Book Publisher | Constable |
| Published Date | 23 Nov 2004 |
About Author
He has been published under several pseudonyms: P.C. Doherty, Celia L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas, Vanessa Alexander, Michael Clynes and Anna Apostolou but now writes only under his own name.
Paul Doherty was born in Middlesbrough (North-Eastern England) in 1946. He had the usual education before studying at Durham for three years for the Catholic priesthood but decided not to proceed. He went to Liverpool University where he gained a First Class Honours Degree in History and won a state scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford, whilst there he met his wife Carla Lynn Corbitt. He continued his studies but decided that the academic world was not for him and became a secondary school teacher.
Paul worked in Ascot, Nottingham and Crawley West Sussex before being appointed as Headmaster to Trinity Catholic School in September 1981. Trinity is a large comprehensive [1700 on roll] which teaches the full ability range, ages 11-18. The school has been described as one of the leading comprehensives in the U.K. In April, 2000 H. M. Inspectorate describe it as an 'Outstanding School', and it was given Beacon status as a Centre of Excellence whilst, in the Chief Inspector’s Report to the Secretary of State for January 2001, Trinity Catholic High School was singled out for praise and received a public accolade.
Paul’s other incarnation is as a novelist. He finished his doctorate on the reign of Edward II of England and, in 1987, began to publish a series of outstanding historical mysteries set in the Middle Age, Classical, Greek, Ancient Egypt and elsewhere. These have been published in the United States by St. Martin’s Press of New York, Edhasa in Spain, and Eichborn, Heyne, Knaur and others in Germany. They have also been published in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Bulgaria, Portugal and China, as well as Argentina and Mexico.
He has been published under several pseudonyms (see the bibliography): C. L. Grace, Paul Harding, Ann Dukthas and Anna Apostolou but now writes only under his own name. He recently launched a very successful series based around the life of Alexander the Great, published by Constable & Robinson in the U.K., and Carroll and Graf in the U.S.A., whilst his novels set in Ancient Egypt have won critical acclaim. Paul has also written several non-fiction titles; A Life of Isabella the She-wolf of France, Wife of Edward II of England, as well as study of the possible murder of Tutankhamun, the boy Pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, and a study on the true fate of Alexander the Great.
Paul and Carla live on the borders of London and Essex, not far from Epping Forest and six of their children have been through his own school. His wife Carla currently owns two horses and is training, for showing and dressage, a beautiful Arab filly named Polly.
Paul lectures for a number of organisations, particularly on historical mysteries, many of which later feature in his writings. A born speaker and trained lecturer Paul Doherty can hold and entertain audiences.
His one great ambition is to petition the Privy Council of England to open the Purbeck marble tomb of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral. Paul believes the tomb does not house the body
Related Books
Alexander the Great remains a glorious enigma: a man who wanted to be a god, a Greek who wanted to be Persian, a defender of liberty who took away the freedom of many, and a volatile prince, as capable of compassion as of ruthlessness.
He rampaged through the Persian empire, conquered the Middle East, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. His armies invaded west Pakistan and threatened India. He grew to believe he was the son of God, pursuing everlasting glory through world dominion. But while his armies seemed invincible, he himself was not, dying in Babylon at the age of 32, after a banquet.
Alexander had been warned by a holy man to avoid Babylon; it seems his death there was predictable. What was it about his life that made it somehow inevitable that he would be cut down in his prime? There might well have been a conspiracy against him, stirred up by the violent captains of war with whom he surrounded himself.
Some had undoubtedly tired of his relentless desire to march to the rim of the world and were disturbed by his increasing despotism, aware of how many of their fellows were dying not in battle but through accident or disease.
If it was not human intervention that caused the death of this godlike young man, what factors in his life are important? We know of his reputation for excess. His death could have been the result of alcohol poisoning. Or it could simply have been disease, perhaps malaria. But there are other, more sinister and complex possibilities.
All avenues are explored, in this well-rounded and compelling investigation. Paul Doherty's richly exciting yet scholarly account brilliantly unravels the life of the man from the provincial town of Macedon in north-west Greece who changed the face of the ancient world for all time.