About the Author

Mary Renault was born in London and educated at Oxford. She then trained for three years as a nurse, and wrote her first published novel, Promise of Love. Her next three novels were written while serving in WWII. After the war, she settled in South Africa and traveled considerably in Africa and Greece. It was at this time that she began writing her brilliant historical reconstructions of ancient Greece, including The King Must Die, The Last of the Wine, and The Persian Boy. She died in Cape Town in 1983.

Reviews

“Undeniably charming . . . has an enormous nostalgic attractiveness.” —New Yorker

“Written with rare insight.” —Boston Globe

“A very lively and human story.” —New York Times Book Review