Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author and
broadcaster. He is the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the
Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize
for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize;
Persian Fire, his history of the Graeco-Persian wars, won the
Anglo-Hellenic League’s Runciman Award in 2006. Tom Holland is the
presenter of BBC Radio 4’s “Making History” and acclaimed podcast
“The Rest is History”. He has written and presented a number of TV
documentaries, for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from
ISIS to dinosaurs. He served two years as the Chair of the Society
of Authors and is Chair of the British Library’s PLR Advisory
Committee.
Born in New Zealand, Jason Cockcroft grew up in the north of
England and studied illustration at Falmouth University. He has
illustrated numerous picture books and fiction titles for all ages,
most notably contributing the cover artwork for three of the
original UK editions of the Harry Potter series. His debut fiction
title We Were Wolves published in 2021.
This is the first book for children by the historian and podcaster
Tom Holland and, boy, he doesn’t muck about. Straight away, we are
thrown into the wild and violent world of myth… Jason Cockcroft’s
cinematic illustrations of warriors creeping through forests and
Greeks and Persians in battle elevate it into something
special.
*Children’s books of the year 2023, The Sunday Times*
"A glorious mixture – of history, fiction and thrilling legend,
with pictures to swim the Hellespont for."
*Sebastian Faulks*
What a fabulous achievement! Not since Mary Renault has this kind
of history come so alive and with such juice, energy and
excitement. I just know that my twelve-year-old self would have
fallen on this like a … like a wolf on a lamb. Breathtaking
adventure on every page, and just the kind of detail, colour and
vitality that young readers adore. As does this old reader, I have
to confess.
*Stephen Fry*
The Wolf-Girl, the Greeks and the Gods is a wonder, as beautiful to
look at as it is entrancing to read. Jason Cockcroft's
illustrations are jaw-dropping, and Tom Holland's prose took me
back to my own childhood introductions to these extraordinary
mythological worlds in Roger Lancelyn Green's Tales of the Greek
Heroes and Leon Garfield's and Charles Keeping's The God Beneath
the Sea.
*Frank Cottrell-Boyce*
A glorious white-knuckle ride through classical history […] Through
her account, Holland retells the key events of the wars, including
the battle of Thermopylae, and the Greek victories at Salamis and
Plataea; but young readers will be equally gripped by the domestic
vignettes, and glimpses into Spartan culture […] Holland’s great
skill is in how he interweaves myth and history, such that the
lines become ever more blurred. The combination of his lyrical
writing and Jason Cockcroft’s plain, haunting illustrations make
this a book that any child is likely to remember well into their
later years.
*Daily Telegraph*
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