CYRUS

About the Book

SENTENCED TO DEATH EVEN BEFORE HE WAS BORN; CYRUS ROSE FROM IGNOMINY TO SEIZE THE THRONE WHICH WAS HIS BIRTHRIGHT, TO BECOME THE KING OF THE MIGHTIEST EMPIRE THE WORLD HAD EVER SEEN. IN HIS QUEST HE IS AIDED THE PRINCES OF THE SIX TRIBES OF MEDIA, AND BY HARPAGUS, ONCE ASTYAGES’ OWN GENERAL; WHO HAD HIS OWN REASON TO TURN AGAINST THE TYRANT ASTYAGES. CYRUS IS AN EXCITING STORY OF INTRIGUE AND CONQUEST, OF TREACHERY AND BETRAYAL; OF LOYALTY AND HEROISM; OF ORACLES, OMENS AND PROPHECIES; AND THE FUTILITY OF BELIEVING THEM.

About the Author

AFTER BECOMING HOMELESS AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN, DAVID ROWLANDS EVENTUALLY DRIFTED TO LONDON, WHERE HE BECAME A BUSKER, LIVING IN SQUATS DURING THE 1970S, UNTIL HE MET THE WOMAN WHO WAS TO BE HIS WIFE IN “MATILDA’S” FOLK-CLUB IN NOTTING HILL GATE. AFTER HIS SON WAS BORN DAVID DECIDED TO MIGRATE TO AUSTRALIA, WHERE HE WENT BACK TO SCHOOL AND THEN ON TO UNIVERSITY, WHERE HE EVENTUALLY EARNED AN HONORS DEGREE IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY. ALWAYS A KEEN AMATEUR HISTORIAN, “CYRUS” REFLECTS DAVID’S INTEREST IN ANCIENT CULTURES AND DRAWS TOGETHER CERTAIN THEMES WHICH EMERGE FROM HIS ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK.