'Never less than compelling ... She consistently succeeds in bringing what might otherwise seem dusty and remote to vivid life' Tom Holland, Literary Review 'Starts with an erupting volcano - and then gets more exciting ... Wonderfully rich, witty, insightful and wide-ranging' Sarah Bakewell In a dazzling, lively new literary biography, Daisy Dunn weaves together the lives of two Roman Pliny the Elder, author of Natural History , and his nephew Pliny the Younger, who inherited his uncle's notebooks and intellectual legacy. Breathing vivid life back into the Plinys, Daisy Dunn charts the extraordinary lives of two outstanding minds and their lasting legacy on the world. 'A fascinating, compelling and excellent biography'Simon Sebag Montefiore 'Immensely entertaining and readable ... Thoroughly recommended'Sunday Times