Pompeii is an historical novel through which the reader lives the last days of that doomed city of luxury and its neighbouring community, Herculaneum.

The signs are there: Wells and springs fail, a man disappears, and the greatest aqueduct in the known world ceases to flow for no apparent reason. The story takes us from the first hints that something is amiss to the waves of heat and showers of ash that kill most of the inhabitants, as we sit at the edge of our chairs hoping that the young engineer, the elderly scientist, and other sympathetic characters will somehow survive the tragedy.

School texts should bring history to life as Robert Harris has done!