He is keen to emphasise his view that 'historical characters are still basically the same people we are they just lived 1,000 years ago.'Īfter completing the Conqueror series, Iggulden turned to a very different time and place – albeit closer to home - beginning his series about the Wars of the Roses with the novel Stormbird. It’s a story Iggulden describes as 'the greatest rags-to-riches story of all time' and one which has become one of the bestselling historical series of all time: Iggulden’s Conqueror novels.Īlthough Iggulden spent much of his time researching his Genghis novels on the ground in Mongolia, he is up-front about the deviations he makes from absolute historical accuracy, making character central to the plot. With a film of his Emperor series in the offing, Iggulden may well be the instigator of his very own ‘gladiator effect’ before too long – his fans will be holding the producers to a very strict adherence to his books, no doubt.įrom the Wolf of the Plains to the Stormbirdįurther forays into the depths of history followed, with Iggulden proving his range by jumping from ancient Rome straight into the midst of the 13th century and the plains of the Asian steppes for his novel of the Mongol Warlord Genghis Khan, entitled Wolf of the Plains. The book launched Iggulden’s first series, Emperor, which follows the life of Julius Caesar and characters from all strata of Roman society living through Caesar’s rise to power. One of Waterstones’ most frequently recommended authors the success of the series evidently owes more to skilful and consistently gripping writing than luck of timing. His first career was as a teacher, following in the footsteps of his mother who was a history teacher, and he still says he has ‘a teacher's tweed jacket on my soul’ before he turned history into fiction for his first novel.Įntitled, The Gates of Rome, the book caught the tide of a resurgence in interest in the Roman period, partly (the author acknowledges) spurred on by the release of the film Gladiator. His great-grandfather was a Seannachie (a Gaelic term for a bard or storyteller) and Iggulden admits, “story-telling is in the genes somewhere.”

For writer Conn Iggulden, storytelling is in the blood.

Genghis khan series books