Alfred Duggan!

No, not one of the Jackal's many identities.

Alfred Duggan is quite an interesting author of classical historical fiction. Anyone else here a fan?

Yes, absolutely. Spare, sparkling, sometimes hard to penetrate, ultimately super-illuminating.

Last one read: Elephants and Castles. Brilliant uncovering of the life and career of Demetrius, as he vied with Alexander's successors to carve out a state from what was left.

The Roman books are brilliant, including Late Rome with the Little Emperors, the Crusades books are brilliant, especially Count Bohemond (I, like Anna, worship him).

But he wrote the odd history, like He Died Old - great book about Mithridates, and Devil's Brood - Duggan's take on the scope and significance of Plantagenet - the book that made me want to be a historian.

Whoa! You hit a nerve there!

Hmm. Now you've got me interested. I'm not usually a fan of Historic Fiction but
Duggan might be worth a go.

ETA. I just noticed that Evelyn Waugh had 21 of his books. Guess That's
good enough for me.

I began reading his works as a teen, well worth pursuing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Duggan

Conscience of the King is one of my favs.

Hey! Thanks for the input! I didn't think anyone was going to speak up. Its surprising how many titles he produced.

I've read just one of his works and it was mesmerizing. Audacious. Smoothly, confidently narrated; bold content; rich perspective, characterization, and storyline. Sticks in one's memory; how often do you get a detailed first-person account from a Roman centurion?

It was called, 'Family Favorites'.

I'm eager to sample more.

So what would you recommend to a first-time reader?

These folks above ^^ can say, better than I..

I'm probably going for 'Winter Quarters' and 'Conscience of the King' simply based on content/timeperiod I'm interested in. Its reassuring to see such good feeling for the author, expressed here (on LT).

I bought a handful of Duggan some while ago: maybe it's time to get them out and read them...

Let me repeat stellarexplorer (#6) request. Since I am thinking of buying ONE right now.

So what would you recommend to a first-time reader?

I Understand the different period pieces. BUT what is the best written piece?
Ancient Rome, England...Suggest your Best.

Guido.

PS. Given my TBR pile, it might be a while before I read it.

I remember reading his non-fiction: The Story of the Crusades as a kid; I had previously read the Classic Comic Books on the crusades. Alfred Duggan, Rosemary Sutcliff, Henry Treece....steps towards becoming a historian.

I had some Duggan books (and Henry Treece) books handed down to me from a friend who died. I had never heard of them but they looked interesting so I kept them. Perhaps I should even read them...

Okay if you're just going to purchase ONE title initially--to get you started with him--then I can only recommend with supreme confidence the one book I have read and which has held a firm place in my admiration ever since.

Family Favorites

I can vouch for this book, unstintingly. His other works, I am assuming are of similar quality: and this is what excites me. This is what prompted me to start this thread, in order to hear further opinions.

I believe you mean Family Favourites, rather than a cookbook, where the other touchstone leads!

Oouff! Zing!

:)

I just ordered a copy of FF

Another Duggan attraction to me is that he also wrote about some of the "other guys" and unfamiliar happenings: in Knight with Armour we learn about a simple crusader, Conscience of the King looks at Cerdic (not King Arthur), Three's Company looks at event thru the eyes of M.Lepidus (not Caesar), He DIed Old is one of the few volumes on Mithradates, while The Little Emperors examines the last days of Late Roman Britain as this and that usurper fights over what is left. All interesting books.

I wonder how many people these days--with the advent of all these glossy, gory, cable tv mini-series on Rome and Spartacus and the Tudors and what-all..are finding their way to an author like Duggan. If they can do just that much, I wouldn't criticize them so disparagingly.

This guy sounds intriguing. Especially the Mithradates novel. I read a biography (such as can be written) about Mithradates last year and it was terrific. What a force of nature he was.

I too just ordered FF from Amazon, unsurprisingly Bookdepository didn't have it in stock.
Best bargin I could get was Amazons almost $3 (new) BUT $16 postage. Ouch.

ETA. Thanks Dzerzhinsky I do hope you are Not a murderous bastard, like your names sake?

Re: Mithradates (He died Old): it's not a novel, it's a history. Hardly even a biography, the sources are so sparse.

#19, for old out of print works I often have success via BOOKFINDER.com.

>19 guido47: Unavailable for less perhaps because I first snared the one that was New for $2.69 plus 3.99 shipping..

#21 Thanks for the information on Bookfinder : I managed to find three books via this site :-)

#23, yw! Glad you're stimulating the economy!

In need of another audio book, I downloaded Winter Quarters from audible today. So far, so good, although there are some instances of modern verbiage, like village green, that make me raise my eyebrows.

Duggan is a particular favourite of those of us that play Phil Barker's Ancient Wargames rules of any stripe. It seems that Barker was a fan and reccomends a few of the novels in his army list books (still does in the latest version of his rules).

My personal favourites are Lady for Ransom and Lord Geoffrey's Fancy with Leopards and Lilies coming up a close third.

I read them all when quite young and was amazed when I later found these minor charactes of history mentioned in histories of the period

Cheers

After Family Favourites, go for "Lord Geoffrey's Fancy".