480 BC: At a bleak pass in a far-flung corner of eastern Greece, three hundred Spartan warriors faced the army of King Xerxes of Persia, a massive force rumoured to be over a million strong. Their orders were simple: to delay the enemy for as long as possible in order to buy time for the main Greek armies to mobilize. For six days the Spartans held the invaders at bay. In the final hours - their shields broken, swords and spears shattered - they fought with their bare hands before being overwhelmed... It was battle that would become synonymous with extraordinary courage, heroism and self-sacrifice. It was a battle called Thermopylae.

"From the bestselling author of Gates of Fire comes an historical epic about the early years of the Roman Empire. A Man at Arms is a Western set in Jerusalem and the Sinai desert in the first century AD, a few years after the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. The villains are the Romans. They're in pursuit of a courier bearing an incendiary letter from Paul the Apostle. For agents of Rome, this letter represents an existential threat that will propagate a new faith and a new form of resistance among those who suffer under the heel of the Roman Empire. The Romans hire a mercenary named Telamon, formerly of the Roman Tenth Legion, to interdict and destroy the letter. Telamon only fights for money. He's been guaranteed a rich reward, but he must not fail because the punishment for failure is death by crucifixion"--

An unputdownable and incredibly evocative military novel full of thrilling battle scenes and flesh and blood characters from Steven Pressfield, author of The Sunday Times Bestseller Gates of Fire. \"A terrific read...this is historical fiction at its very best.\" -- JAMES HOLLAND \"A splendid tour-de-force...it should not be missed\" -- WASHINGTON POST \"Both a captivating history lesson and rousing guts-n-glory saga\" -- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY \"Compelling...the narrative is a page turner\" -- ***** Reader review \"Mr Pressfield is a true craftsman in the best possible way. You LIVE the story while he is telling it\" -- ***** Reader review \"Simply a brilliant read\" -- ***** Reader review **************************************************** NORTH AFRICA, 1942. AN ELITE BRITISH ARMY UNIT IS ON A DEADLY MISSION. Autumn, 1942 - Hitler's legions have swept across Europe. Soviet Russia reels under the German onslaught while across the channel, Britain struggles on. And in North Africa , Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps have routed the 8th Army, threatening the oil fields of the Middle East. The war hangs in the balance... Out of this, the British hatch a desperate plan - to send a small, highly mobile fighting force behind enemy lines to strike a blow that will stop Rommel's army in its tracks. It is to be called the Long Range Desert Group and its exploits will become the stuff of legend. Based on real events, Steven Pressfield's bold novel brings to pulse-racing life the ingenuity and daring of this maverick commando unit - a disparate, dedicated 'band of brothers' who sacrificed so much for the sake of freedom...