Good day everyone, I’m Elena and thank you for being on Alessandro III di Macedonia- the resource on Alexander the Great and Hellenism!

Today, I’m sharing a preview of a book that fans like us can’t miss. This biography of our hero will be published by two different publishers, so we can choose the cover and edition we prefer. I already know which one I’ll get, and I’ll tell you at the end of the article! Now let’s discover the book and all the editions!

Alexander. God, King, Man

by Edmund Richardson

Published by Bloomsbury and St. Martin’s Press

Bloomsbury Publishing, out on 04 Jun 2026

A stunningly written new biography of Alexander the Great, based on a series of important new discoveries and the author’s own translations of source material from twelve ancient languages.

In 336 BCE, at the age of twenty, Alexander, a wide-eyed boy from the hills of Macedon, inherited a tumbledown kingdom, a pile of debts and an army which answered to nobody. Desperate to hold on to power, he led the army east, into the heart of the vast Persian Empire, and inadvertently began the greatest military campaign in history. The young man became a king, the king became a hero, the hero became a living god, and the god died aged thirty-two, broken-hearted in Babylon.

For centuries, historians have told his story, yet Alexander has remained a mystery. But now, the ruins of his cities have emerged from the bottom of the sea and the dust of Central Asian hillsides. The diaries of Babylonian astronomers who knew him have been deciphered. The tombs of his ancestors have been unearthed. For the first time, instead of the legend, we can meet Alexander the man.

Based on more than a decade of cutting-edge research, Alexanderallows readers to feel the desert wind and experience the full horror of battle. Richardson’s research has taken him from the catacombs of Egypt to the passes of Afghanistan. Alexander is a cinematic work of non-fiction: a revelatory retelling of one of the most famous and elusive stories in history.

Edmund Richardson is Associate Professor of Classics at Durham University, UK. He has published Classical Victorians: Scholars, Scoundrels and Generals in Pursuit of Antiquity (2013), and was named one of the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers in 2016.

‘A thrilling story, wonderfully told by one of the great historians’ KEN FOLLETT
‘Dazzling… This is biography of great brilliance and rare resonance’ WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
‘A pulsating, vivid life of a true historical titan’ DAN JONES
‘A splendid book, lively, erudite… where myth and heroism meet’ RORY STEWART

INFOS and EDITIONS:

St. Martin’s Press, out on 29 Sept 2026

An enthralling new biography of Alexander the Great, written as an intimate, present portrait of the way his world saw him and the price he paid to become history’s greatest military mind.

Alexander the Great: a wide-eyed boy from the hills of Macedon who ruled most of the known world by his mid-twenties. For centuries, historians, refugees, poets, and explorers have told his story, and yet Alexander himself has remained a mystery.

But over the last few years, a series of remarkable discoveries has changed everything. From the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea and the dust of Central Asian hillsides, the remains of Alexander’s cities have emerged. The diaries of Babylonian astronomers who knew him have been deciphered. The tombs of his ancestors have been unearthed. Now, for the first time since antiquity, it is possible to tell a different story. The story of a young man whom almost no-one noticed, until the day he became king. A king who became a hero, a hero who became a living god, and a god who died broken-hearted in Babylon.

Using cutting-edge research and a unique narrative approach, Alexander thrusts readers into Alexander the Great’s world in ways which have never before been possible: to see the same stars wheeling overhead, feel the desert wind, and experience the full horror of battle. Alexander is a cinematic work of non-fiction, a revelatory retelling of one of the most famous and elusive stories in history.

Edmund Richardson is Professor of Classics at Durham University, UK. He has published The King’s Shadow and Classical Victorians: Scholars, Scoundrels and Generals in Pursuit of Antiquity (2013), and was named one of the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers in 2016.

In The News

“Meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, Richardson’s Alexander is a triumph of scholarship and storytelling. The text is so lively, the insights so revealing, I felt as if I was reading about Alexander for the first time.” —Toby Wilkinson, author of The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra

“A thrilling story, wonderfully told by one of the great historians.” —Ken Follett

“A compelling account of one of history’s greatest figures. Edmund Richardson has made full use of new discoveries in describing the life of Alexander, while conveying the tension and drama that accompanied his achievements and tragedies. Highly readable, enjoyable and authoritative.” —William Hague

“A pulsating, vivid life of a true historical titan…In this marvellous book, [Alexander] has found a biographer with the scholarly insight and narrative verve to bring him thundering onto the page.” —Dan Jones, bestselling author of Henry V

“A splendid book, lively, erudite, steeped in the vast non-European world which Alexander encountered. A book where myth and heroism meet.” —Rory Stewart

“Alexander rides again into battle in this dazzling new masterpiece… Impossibly colourful, wonderfully well written and drawing on some extraordinary new sources, this is a biography of great brilliance and rare resonance.” —William Dalrymple, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Golden Road

INFOS and EDITIONS:

So which edition will I get? Bloomsbury’s for three reasons: it will come out first, I found the hardback less expensive than the paperback, and it’s the publisher I know best of the two.

I hope I was helpful, have a good day, Elena

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