Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch

Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch is an archetypal Dedalus novel and bears comparison with David Madsen's masterpiece: Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf. 'Zeno, living in ninth-century Byzantium, has had a rough time of it.Taken from his native town and castrated by Norse pirates, he finds himself stranded by them in a tavern in the suburbs of Constantinople.Then, unsuspecting, he is swept off by the greatest missionary of the age to serve its greatest scholar, St Photius the Great.Though his social status rises, his problems multiply:he must help his new master in his ambitions, seek out depravities for Michael III,and guards his adopted sister Eudocia. He fails, of course, as he is dragged ever deeper into the eerie world of the palce eunuch, the real rulers of the empire.' Murrough O'Brien in The Independent on Sunday Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch is very good on unusual Christian sects, Byzantine intrigue and the clash with Islam. It will appeal to readers who like battles, court politics, depravity, ideas and colour in their historical fiction.