The Reviews

Praise for the author

‘In his depiction of 16th-century Asia, Alex Rutherford has set the bar high for his sequels’

Daily Mail

‘A totally absorbing narrative filled with authentic historical characters and sweeping action set in an age of horrifying but magnificent savagery. The writing is as compelling as the events described and kept me eagerly leaping from one page to the next’

Wilbur Smith

‘[The] account of early Moghul emperors and the relationship between Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal… provides a thoroughly enjoyable romp in the harems’

Financial Times

‘Every page offers a vivid image or telling detail that captures the deeply weird and violent world of the Moghuls. We’re given internecine rivalry, the paranoia, poisonings, torturing and killings, flaying, blinding, knifing. Never have jewels, precious metals… cascaded over the page as they do here’

Spectator

‘A hugely entertaining book… best of all is the potted history of the Moghuls, chock full of nuggets like how the ladies of the court used burnt conch shells and banana juice to remove unwanted hair… Those Moghuls were high maintenance’

Guardian

‘Compulsively readable’

Independent on Sunday

‘A complex, monumental tale, I doubt it will ever be better told’

Mail on Sunday

‘Enthralling… a rollicking yarn… erudite asides’

Australian

‘Brothers at War is fast-paced, full of intrigue, politics and violence as befits the era’

Deccan Chronicle

‘If the first two books of the Empire of the Moghul series are anything to go by, the next three, dealing with the lives of Akbar, Shah Jehan and (Aurangzeb) should be zingers’ Priyak Mitra,

The Asian Age

‘These books transform the card-board figures of the Mughal emperors … into human beings’ Mandira Nayar,

The Week

‘If there is a better book about Cleopatra for today’s reader, I don’t know what it is’

WASHINGTON POST

‘Empire of the Moghul is an interesting historical novel that offers an alternative to the traditional stories about Romans and Egyptians, and instead focuses on the less well-known rise of the Moghuls in India… containing some excellent battle scenes and thrilling moments…’

Canberra Times

‘A first-rate book… compulsive and adding a thoughtful twist of her own’

Times Literary Supplement

‘A bloody saga of strife and loss … The author has done a great job of building up the drama and tension of the conquests and defeats of Babur’

Indian Express

‘A rip-roaring adventure story’

Sunday Midday

‘A must-pick with all the makings of a bestseller’

Hindustan Times

‘Brothers at War… is extremely readable… and Rutherford… has mined the rich historical material to tell a cracking tale’ Shabnam Minwalla,,

The Times of India

‘Like the first book, this one also reflects Rutherford’s amazing talent foe recreating history as fiction … he manages to create well-rounded characters, breathtaking battle scenes, and exotic background’

The Tribune

‘[This] brisk, efficient history combines the excitement of a mystery with the dilemmas of a mystery play’

DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘For forty years, a series of improbably brilliant men and women turned twentieth-century physics into a combination of the School of Athens and Renaissance Florence. Einstein and countless others stalk [the] pages, each brilliantly realised… studded with moments of drama…’ Bryan Appleyard,

SUNDAY TIMES

‘A pirate odyssey reeking of brine and gunpowder, restlessness and opportunism.
Sustain[s] the sense of adventure, keeping the reader eager to find out what each new shore will bring’

BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

‘This wonderful book sustains the suspense over four hundred pages… some of the chapters read like extracts from a thriller… The chapter describing the heroism of the Norwegian and British commandos in destroying the heavy water plant at Vemork is pure Alastair MacLean’

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH