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Roger Crowley

The Spice Race

The Spice Race

The hunt for spices saw the beginnings of globalisation as the Portuguese, Spanish and later the Dutch ventured to the Spice Islands.

On 10 August 1519, five ships set sail from Seville to a burst of cannon fire. They slipped down the Guadalquivir – the great river of Southern Spain – and headed out into the Atlantic Ocean. They were commanded by a Portuguese adventurer, Fernão de Magalhães, who had...

Episode 151

AoH Book Club: Roger Crowley on Constantinople 1453

The acclaimed and bestselling author discusses Constantinople 1453

A gripping work covering the siege of Constantinople 1453, Roger Crowley’s history of this momentous event was published in 2011. Both a critical and commercial success, it was described as “hugely readable, well-written and informative” by the Daily Telegraph and the...

Episode 151

Roger Crowley

Roger Crowley is the best-selling author of five books of narrative history He has written extensively about the Mediterranean world, maritime history and the voyages of discovery. He has a reputation for producing page-turning books based on detailed research, a sense of place and the use of eyewitness accounts.
Roger Crowley

Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...

The Fall of the Knights Templar: The Siege of Acre, 1291

The Fall of the Knights Templar: The Siege of Acre, 1291

Acre was a wealthy cosmopolitan city in 1291 when the Mamluks turned their gaze on the great port, and it would become the last stand of the Templars

In the spring of 1291, the largest army that Islam had ever assembled during 200 years of crusader warfare was advancing on the city of Acre. Swelled by a vast number of volunteers and fired by the spirit of jihad it had come to finally drive the Franks back into the...

Episode 151

Roger Crowley

What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? My interest in the Mediterranean world goes back a long way. My father was a naval officer who was based there in peace and in war. When I was nine he was stationed on Malta and I went out for holidays. I...

In Search of the Crusades

In Search of the Crusades

A poignant piece on forced migration in Greece.

In March 2018 I made a trip to the ancient Mediterranean port of Acre in Northern Israel – Akka in Arabic, Akko in Hebrew  – as part of the research for writing my most recent book, Accursed Tower. I wanted to explore the place where the crusaders made their last...

‘Take only what you can carry’

‘Take only what you can carry’

A poignant piece on forced migration in Greece.

The last few years have seen people across the world being displaced in unprecedented numbers. As the entry to Europe Greece has been all but overwhelmed by the influx of refugees arriving on its shores, but the Greeks themselves have their own deep history of...