This book was in our summer catalogue but we include it (exceptionally) in the present one too because it is outstanding. As in her ‘Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire’ (2007), she brings a complex, remote subject triumphantly to life. Reading this will change the way you think about Italy, the Mediterranean, the Dark Ages, and much else (including, undoubtedly, our own era). The book is well produced, with generous reproductions of the astonishing mosaics.