Conn Iggulden

We are happy to announce that bestselling author Conn Iggulden has agreed to answer some of our question in a recent brief interview. We are sure that this will be just the first of many such interviews.

Unrv.com: Thank you for joining us, Mr. Iggulden. Please tell us how your interest in writing developed. How and when did you decide to write your first book?

Conn Iggulden: I started writing novels at the age of thirteen, as far as I can remember. In potential publishing terms, they had the drawback of being rubbish, but I kept writing and became better at it.

Unrv.com: You have spent several years as an english teacher, correct? How did you come about to set your first novel in ancient Rome, had Shakespeare (Julius Caesar) anything to do with it?

Conn Iggulden: Not really. My mother was a history teacher, so I was brought up on all the good stories of history, like Charles I wearing two shirts on the morning of his execution, so no one would see him shiver and think he was afraid. For me, history is all about good stories, but there was an element of sheer luck in coming across Julius Caesar. I knew the Shakespeare play fairly well, but I didn't know much about his youth

Interesting.

It's good of him to take the time to do this sort of thing.

I'd have liked to have seen him pressed just a teensy bit more on the difference between choosing between historical alternatives (eg Brutus noble born or plebian) and disregarding perfectly good history in order to make a 'better' story. But I admit I'm biased.

Well thats very much to his credit, Anyone who will take the time to speak and make an effort to be approachable is worthy of considerable commendation.

Please thank Conn Iggulden for an interesting interview. I really like the idea, hopefully this is the first of many.

I'm definitely impressed with his apparent approachability and the thoughtful answers to the questions.

Not to change the subject away from this particular interview too much, but we think that this might work out better than the 'ask the expert' format. In the future when we approach various authors for an 'interview', we will probably have community members PM or email us questions (generally regarding a recent or upcoming book) and we'll chop, rearrange, merge, etc. the questions to present to the authors.

Hopefully that will allow the author a chance to talk about his book (I assume a subject near and dear to them) and give us an opportunity for some interesting discussion.

At any rate, considering the way I personally feel about his books, I have a new appreciation for Mr. Iggulden based simply on the responses in this short interview.

PPs last sentence is exactly how I felt as well.

Thanks a lot interview was great. Really liked youe books!!

would like to thank conn igulden for a good and honest interview, im a big fan and have read all the books and am looking forward to the genghis kahn series.

well done, lets have more of these type of interviews

maximus

Wow, this interview was really interesting. I haven't actually read the last (so far) of the Gate of Rome series, it's still sat on my bookshelf waiting for its turn. I enjoyed the previous books though, and now I'm looking forward to the Khan books.

Conn is very approachable, and even has a forum on his website where he regularly talks with his fans. How about a "meet the author" with Simon Scarrow? I love his Eagle series about the Roman Legion.

A little dissapointed that my post was removed, but at any rate, I'd like to again say thanks for the interview.

I'm a fan of fic-tory (fiction / history) books, and these were right up my alley. If I had one complaint, it's that I felt the series could have been at least 4 or 5 books more - so I'm really looking forward to the fifth and final one. Right now, I'm happy with the Conqueror series that he's just started.

I don't think I could recommend a series from the genre more to action / history readers, and it's definately taken it's place among my all-time favorite books.

He seems a genuinely nice guy, I vastly enjoyed reading the interview and hope more installments from other authors are on their way.

Thanks to Conn and Unrv from myself

vtc

Wow Conn Iggulden so brilliant