ANCIENT EGYPT SERIES NOVEL
Happy New Year!
At present I am writing a book entitled Alexander, Pharaoh of Egypt. Part of the Ancient Egypt series, it is currently being written and edited.
As a subject, Alexander-the-Great has been on my mind since childhood.
Why has it taken several decades to commit his story to print?
One reason is that Alexander is hard to write about. Very hard. And it has been done before.
So, why bother?
Because we are discovering new aspects of his character. The Alexander I grew up with is not the one necessarily presented to children today.
So, who was Alexander-the-Great?
Western tradition has always depicted him as a hero. He is considered to have been a military genius, who was young and good-looking, to boot.
That view changed when documentary filmmaker, Michael Wood decided to travel in the footsteps of the ancient warrior. Not only did his journey reveal a very different person from the heroic character in Western literature, but the series, In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great was shown to viewers all over the world, on prime-time television.
Shortly afterwards, director Oliver Stone made his daring movie, Alexander.
That being said, varying portrayals of Alexander-the-Great have always existed in the world’s memory. The mixture is heady and contradictory. Hero, tyrant, merciful, cruel, gay, womanizer, heavy drinker and control freak – the list goes on. He seems to have been all things to all men for the past two thousand years!
Alexander-the-Great also appears in Hebrew, Christian and Muslim writings. He is mentioned in the Book of Daniel, and many scholars consider him to be Dhul-Qarnayn in the Quran.
This is staggering, considering he was a 4th century B.C. Macedonian, who worshipped Greek gods!
So, what was he like?
The young king was probably a mixture of characteristics. Everyone has moods. Everyone has talents, strengths and weaknesses.
But the truth is, whether you read fiction or history, watch a movie or a documentary, nobody knows anything about what he felt or thought.
Nothing.
It’s something to think about, isn’t it?
While historians struggle to discover more about this extraordinary individual, Alexander-the-Great remains elusive. He is the stuff of legends, which makes him a perfect subject for novels.
My decision to write a blog is to take readers on the journey of the book I am writing.
It is to familiarise readers with the tale before it is published, and to introduce them to the characters and their stories.
I trust you enjoy it.
