Amid conditions of brutality that paralleled that of slavery, 'The First Fleet' was sent to a place no European but the legendary Captain Cook had ever seen. Left to live or die on the hostile Australian continent, these convicts and their equally isolated guards occupy the centre of this epic.

Spanning fifty years, from the 1860s through to the turn of the century, this work tells the story of Alexander Kinross, who flees from a childhood of poverty in Scotland to make his fortune in the Australian and the American gold fields. In the process, he meets the woman he loves but can never marry - and marries a woman who can never love him.

Marius, the general who saved Rome from barbarian invasion and became consul an unprecedented six times, has fallen into decline. Sulla, his closest associate, has withdrawn himself from his commander's circle in preparation for his own bid for power. As a deadly enmity develops between the two men, Rome must fight its own battle for survival.

Tells the story of the power and cunning of two Rulers of Rome - Sulla, returning from exile, and the 22-year-old Pompey, who designates himself Magnus "The Great". And in the background is the young soldier, Caesar, who begins to show the expert qualities that will one day culminate in him becoming the unparalleled leader of ancient Rome.

Colleen McCullough retells the tragic and terrible drama of the war between the Greeks and the Trojans and the impact of one woman's beauty on the fate of two nations.

* The Australian answer to GONE WITH THE WIND * 'One of the biggest-selling, most widely read books in the history of fiction' Observer