Great

HAVE just finished reading TV historian Michael Wood's In The Footsteps Of Alexander The Great: A Journey From Greece To India.

I started reading it on Friday when a plane I was catching to Prague was delayed at Heathrow, and I finished it last night over dinner.

That gives some idea of how enjoyable I found the book, which was written in 1997 to accompany a BBC series broadcast the following year.

Alexander .. a great read

The book could have done with a decent editor: too many "impregnable" fortresses are, in the next breath, captured; an army is called "literally invincible;" Alexander is described as carrying a shield whose image turned "enemies into stone."

And doubtless some of Wood's choices over which sources to prefer are controversial, but all these are minor distractions from an entertaining book on a fascinating subject.